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IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 





Holding the proclamaticn high in his right hand, the herald raised his 

left hand.” P. 10. 



IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


BY 

MARION AMES TAGGART, 

O 

AUTHOR OF “loyal BLUE AND ROYAL SCARLET,” “THREE GIRLS AND ESPECIALLY ONE,’ 

“by BRANSCOME RIVER,” ETC., ETC. 




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NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO I 

BENZIOER BROTHERS, 

Printers to the Holy Apostolic See, 


1902, 




THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, ^ 
TWi Cop«w» Rtostveo 

OCT. 16 1902 

CnPVWtOMT EHTRV 

:Vty£. / iT- icf 

CLASS O-^XXo Na 

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Copyright, igoi, by Benziger Brothers. 


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CONTENTS 


Paqb 

CHAPTER I. 

The Coming of the King’s Herald, 9 

CHAPTER IL 

The Going of the King’s Herald, 19 

CHAPTER HI. 

The Arm of the King, 30 

CHAPTER IV. 

From Castle to Tower, 41 

CHAPTER V. 

A Brief Tenure, 54 

CHAPTER VI. - 

A Knightly Enterprise, . 67 

CHAPTER VII. 

In the Tower, 80 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Tidings from Across the Channel, 96 


6 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

CHAPTER IX. 

Gallant Harry, the King, 107 

CHAPTER X. 

“This Day is Called the Feast of Crispin,” .... 120 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Adventures of Lady Isabel, 133 

CHAPTER XH. 

A Harrington to the Rescue, 147 

CHAPTER XIII. 


Darrington of Harrington Once More, 


160 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Page 

Frontispiece. 

Headband, j9 - 

“ ‘Pardon, sir,’ said the constable, doffing his cap and kneeling, 
in which he was followed by the more important towns- 
men.” 13-^ 

‘He was quickly admitted, in response to his summons, to find 
a few of Lord Harrington’s immediate, personal servitors 
seated around the long black oaken table chatting so 
cheerfully that it was evident no syllable of the bad news 
he brought had reached them. ” 21 - 

“ Dick fired, straight and true, at the herald going singing down 

the hill.” 25 

“Lord Harrington looked at the parchment held toward him, 
but did not touch it ; his brows knit, and his lips com- 
pressed themselves in a hard line.” 31" 

“ Looking from the battlement saw an armored figure on horse- 
back gazing up at him.” 37 

“Lord Harrington, supporting Isabel on his arm, led the way.” 43 

“But at that instant the tall figure of Father Jerome, in his 
Benedictine habit, came swiftly down the meadow, and 
Isabel, snatching Stephen’s hand, ran to meet him.” . 49- 

“With the heartiest good will in the world, two of the three 
attendants dismounted and sprang forward, one of them 
dealing a tremendous blow with his ax on the iron-bound 
oak.” *^7- 

“ When the last words were read, the air was rent with cheers.” 61 

“ The excitement of the past hour shone in liis eyes ; before he 
had spoken. Lady Margaret caught the alarm and fiew to 
her elder son, certain that the younger liad evil tidings to 
communicate.” 69- 


8 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Page 


“ ‘Farewell, my clear, my dearest son,’ she murmured. ” . . 75 

“lie found King Hal seated at the end of a small table idly 
pulling the ears of a greyhound, whose long head lay 
stretched out on his royal master’s lap.” .... 83 

“Isabel threw herself on his shoulder, her arms encircling liis 

neck.” 91 

“The countryman rested on the handle of his rude plow, one 
hand thrust into his leathern breeches pocket, and eyed 
Roger suspiciously some minutes before answering his 
cjuestion.” •* . . 97 

“ Stopping short, and looking around, he saw a jiale, dark face 

smiling at him.” 103 

“Alain rode up to the walls and, shading his eyes with liis liand, 
scanned the action raging before Harfleur. The assault 
was even then drawing to its close.” 109 

“He saw a young, strong form clad in complete armor, sitting 

at a table.” 115 


“Stepinng in front of his clergy, the abbot-bishop lifted up his 
thin, sweet voice: ‘Deus, in adjutorium meum intende,’ 
he chanted. And like a solid rock of sound came back 


the response.” 123 

“ ‘ God for King Hal ! ’ hoarsely shouted the dry English throats.” 129 

“ Isabel fitted it to her delicate, lithe frame.” .... 139 

“ Isabel, seated by the bed, heard Hugo’s step on the stone out- 
side the door, and started to her feet.” .... 143 

“ Instantly the battlements were swarming with activity.” . 149 

“ ‘ My armor,’ cried Alain, and Jean buckled it around him.” . 155 

“ Raoul pointed to the prostrate figure with a passionate motion.” 163 


“Dame Winifred, drying her eyes, led the way to the door, and 
Jean followed proudly. To the surprise of all, she went out 
of the house, and turned up the hill.” .... 


167 



IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL 


CHAPTER I. 

THE COMING OF THE KING^S HERALD. 

The little town of Harrington Towers lay in peaceful repose 
at the foot of its feudal castle, lapped in the spring sunshine. 
It was not the habit of the villagers to question fate. Since the 
time of Rufus, the ruddy son of the Conqueror, Harrington Castle 
had crowned those heights, ruled over by a Lord Harrington, 
and his dependents felt no doubt that their existence was owing 
to this long-abiding established order of things; that they tilled 
their fields — and paid their tithes — during the somewhat rare 
periods of peace, owing not less, and more perceptibly, to the pro- 

9 


10 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


tection of the lords of Darrington than to that of Heaven. And 
if their feudal lord led them to battle and to death, as was fre- 
quently the case, why then it was incontrovertibly true that a 
man must needs die once, and it was a beautiful and consoling 
thought that his widow and children would receive dole until 
their time came in turn at the big gate of the castle. 

The lords of Darrington had always been restless, fighters by 
nature and choice. They had won their cognomen by their deeds 
of derring-do, according to which derivation, indeed, it was then 
spelled by the few who dealt in such subtleties as spelling in the 
days of King Hal. In the time of the old king, and while the 
merry prince was entertaining himself with light-hearted high- 
way robbery, the lord of Darrington had been openly against the 
house of Lancaster, throwing himself heartily into the camp of 
Harry Hotspur of Korthumberland. But now that King Henry 
the Fourth was dead, Harry the Fifth reigned with a strong hand 
that showed no sign of earlier relaxation. The disaffected Earl 
Darrington was dead also, and his son, too, ruled in his place. 
Hotspur was put down forever; the Lollards were in process of 
crushing, and Lord Darrington rested in his castle, apparently 
satisfied to accept the defeat of his fathers party and live at 
peace under the Bed Eose. He was of less warlike complexion 
than his race, a man with somewhat the taste and habits of a 
scholar, devoted to his family, and meddling little with the world 
of strife, of which, mayhap, as he had come to his title late in 
life, he had seen too much. 

Hence it was that the village of Darrington Towers was en- 
joying the beauties of a May morning, balmy even in the north, and 
thanking its stars that it had no dictated objections to the reign- 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


11 


ing king, in regard to whom its notions were of the vaguest. The 
village was backed on the north by the castle-crowned hill; on 
the east and west fields of bright, soft English green skirted the 
eminence, stretching away toward the adjoining counties; a road 
from the village gates led southward, losing itself in the shades 
of the forest, at the other end of which, the villagers believed, 
lay London. 

It was down this road, beneath the scantier lines of trees 
near the forest’s boundary, that a woman, resting from planting 
peas, and looking afar southward, saw a glittering movement 
which past experience enabled her to construe aright. 

There be soldiers and their knaves coming,” she cried to- 
ward the pig pen, and her good man, coming on the word around 
the corner, confirmed her judgment with the force of his slower 
but unimpeachable masculine intellect. 

Instantly the repose of the village was broken. The constable 
ordered the gates shut, and a messenger despatched to the 
castle. If, he argued most sagely. Lord Darrington was at peace 
with the world and his king, then armed men riding on the vil- 
lage could come but in enmity, and it behooved good men and 
true to receive them accordingly. 

The glittering little cavalcade rode out of the shade of the 
forest into the full glare of the May sunshine. On to the closed 
gates they rode, and, knocking there, demanded entrance in the 
king’s name. ^ 

Who dares thus abuse His Majesty’s authority, and thunder 
at the gates of his loyal subjects ? ” demanded the constable, who 
prided himself on talking like a clerk. 

The king’s messenger. Open to the king’s herald ! It will 


12 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


be the worse for yon if yon dare keep ns waiting, cooling onr 
heels in the anteroom of yonr petty sovereignty,^’ came back the 
answer. 

"Why shonld yon be the king’s herald? We have no bnsi- 
ness with the king, save to pay taxes and fight for him if needs 
mnst,” argned the constable, at the head of his admiring bnrghers. 

"Why I am the king’s herald is the business. of His Majesty 
who appoints me, and none of yonrs, fellow. Easiness with the 
king snch as yon will never have, bnt His Majesty hath bnsiness 
with yon, and with that lord of yonrs. Open, and that instantly ! 
If we are kept longer parleying it will go sore with yon. Open ! ” 
cried the herald, angrily. 

" Perhaps ’twere as well to see the fellow, and whether he hath 
really the king’s seal and warrant,’^ said the constable, cantionsly. 

A mnrmnr of assent greeted these words, while from withont a 
thnndering blow fell on the locked gates, and the herald shonted : 
" A cnrse on yon ! Open, or they will be blown to splinters ! ” 

" Yes, good sir ; we are bnt fitting the key,” responded the 
constable, and in a moment the gates swnng to admit ten horse- 
men, the herald, with frowning brows and angry looks, riding 
at their head. 

Withont a word, bnt with the royal banner so displayed that 
none conld donbt their anthority, the armed band rode into the 
center of the village, followed by its citizens and the trembling 
constable, qnite cowed by a glimpse of the king’s insignia, and the 
thought that he, Nicholas Witman, had dared resist it a moment. 

Arrived at the sqnare, which was the market-place, the herald 
and his followers dismonnted, and, tnrning to the constable, 
showed him a paper sealed with the royal seal. 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


18 


Dost know that, sirrah, or must that, too, like our right of 
admittance, be pounded into your thick noddle ? he demanded. 

Pardon, sir,^’ said the constable, doffing his cap and kneel- 
ing, in which he was followed by the more important townsmen. 

I did but my duty in making sure that I was not opening hastily 
to any one who might falsely claim the king's authority. Well 



‘‘ ‘ Pardon, sir/ said the constable, doffing his cap and kneeling, in which he 
teas followed by the more important townsmen. ‘ I did but my duty 
in making sure that I was not opening hastily to any one who 
might falsely claim the king’s authority.’ ” 

do I know, and most heartily venerate, that royal seal. His 
Majesty King Henry, the fifth of that glorious name, hath no 
more loyal sul)jects than here in us, the citizens of Darrington 
Towers, and in our lord above in the castle, who will more 
worthily than we receive the king’s herald when time allows him 
to learn of your coming.” 


14 


IN THE DAY8 OF KING HAL. 


As to that, good constable/’ said the herald, magnificently, 
'' I am satisfied of your loyalty, and that you had no intention of 
resisting the king’s authority, once satisfied that it was at your 
gates. But of your lord I am less assured. It is to announce 
to you that we of the court, like our royal master, doubt his 
loyalty I am come.” 

Doubt his loyalty! What, my lord Harrington’s?” cried 
the constable, rising, and surprised into forgetfulness of his own 
importance. Surely you are jesting, or else have been griev- 
ously misinformed. My lord’s father was disaffected, it is true, 
but those were in the troublous days of the old king, before King 
Harry had taken the reins into his firm hands. Since his acces- 
sion, and the death of our old lord, Harrington Castle hath been 
an abode of fealty; our present lord hath no taste for intrigue, 
but cares only for quiet, and serves his king truly by letting 
well enough completely alone.” 

So you think, I hope and believe, sir constable, but such is 
not the case,” returned the herald. Certain information hath 
reached the king that your lord is plotting for the restoration 
of the Yorkists. Proof has been laid before His Majesty, and a 
writ of attainder has been at last made out. He is accused of 
treason, and it is to publish the proclamation that his lands and 
person, and that of his children, are confiscated I am come to- 
day.” 

Treason! My lord a traitor to the king! Why, ’tis mad- 
ness ! ” gasped the constable, while a murmur of horror and in- 
dignation arose on all sides, for Lord Harrington was well loved 
and his distaste for politics an established fact. 

^^Have a care of your tongue, fellow,” warned the herald. 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


15 


It does not become you to call the king’s acts madness. I see 
that you are ignorant of the truth; it shall be set down to your 
credit in my report at court. But that your lord is a traitor is 
a fact, for he is thus set forth in this proclamation, and in it 
you are all absolved, nay forbidden, under penalty of sharing his 
guilt, of further allegiance to him. Whoso obeys, shelters, in 
any way abets him, becomes, like him, false to the throne.” 

Forbidden to obey Lord Barrington ! ” cried the constable. 

Then who is lord over us, and under whose banner are we en- 
rolled?” 

Admirably put, sir constable! Your point is well taken. 
You would do credit to London, I doubt not, if fortune sent you 
to court,” said the herald, condescendingly. It may be that 
you know of another branch of Barringtons, cousins of the about- 
to-be-deposed lord. They have ever been loyal to the house of 
Lancaster. The estates and title will be conferred upon them, 
and you will still have over you a Lord Barrington of the old 
stock.” 

It is a plot to wrong my lord ! ” cried a fresh young voice in 
the crowd. He is no more traitor than you or I. I have heard 
it said that those cousins hungered for Barrington, and I’ll wager 
they have beset the king’s ears — ” 

The voice died out in muffled struggles to be heard, and the 
owner of the hand that had been forcibly pressed over the speak- 
er’s mouth said fiercely, in his ear : Be quiet, Bick I Think you 
such as we can alter the king’s decree, or serve our lord by 
angering his enemies ? ” 

There is no plot, save Lord Barrington’s plot to unseat his 
lawful sovereign, young cock,” said the herald, striving to distin- 


16 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


guish the speaker. You will now all listen, with the reverence due 
them, to the words of the king’s proclamation, by which you will 
be instructed as to your former lord’s guilt and your duty both 
as regards him and the new lord whom the king will set over 
you. Fall back there, you men ; you press somewhat boldly upon 
the king’s majesty, as represented by me. Here, bare your heads, 
while I mount that platform yonder. So ! That is well. Silence ! 
See that no one speaks or moves ; if any dare do either prick him 
into respect with your swords,” he added, to his own men. Stand- 
ing on the raised platform from which Lord Harrington was 
accustomed to address his followers on occasions of harvest festi- 
vals or holidays, the herald unrolled with great solemnity, and 
no little self-importance, the proclamation which he carried, tied 
with a scarlet ribbon, sealed with the royal seal, and written fair 
on heavy parchment in a monkish hand, as were all documents of 
the period. 

Silence fell over the assembly of simple souls, to whom a 
king’s warrant was only less than the king’s person, and the near- 
est they could ever hope to come to the latter. With the customary 
introductory flourish of Oyez ! Oyez ! Oyez ! ” the herald read the 
proclamation, standing with his feet on a level with the people’s 
heads, who listened awe-struck and sorrowful, the women leaning 
from the adjoining windows even shedding tears as the herald 
pronounced the lord of Harrington deposed from his rank, his 
estates confiscated, his honor lost, his person forfeit to the pleas- 
ure of the king, to be yielded up for conveyal to London, where 
he should await trial in the Tower on the charge of treason against 
the king’s most high majesty. 

Holding the proclamation toward the crowd high in his right 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


17 


hand as he ended, the herald raised his left hand, and pointed 
backward toward the castle. 

Yon have heard, men of Barrington,’^ he cried, the will 
of the king. If one among you dare disobey this edict, and serve 
in any capacity the former earl of Barrington, now disgraced 
and deposed, let him look to it. He is no king’s man who diso- 
beys the king, and Henry the Fifth is not an ox to be bearded 
with impunity. He is the lion of England, and though he is so 
great that France trembles at the prospect of his coming to seize 
the crown he claims, he still can find room to crush, and will 
crush, the least of his subjects who flouts him. Barrington will 
be razed, and every man’s home burned above him if there be one 
among you who does not bend to this decree, putting down for- 
ever your false lord, and who does not pay ready and true 
allegiance to the new lord of Barrington whom the king will set 
up. You have heard. God save the king ! ” 

In silence, broken only by low mutterings, the crowd turned 
from the square, and dispersed in knots of two and three. Lord 
Barrington was indeed well beloved; not a face there but ex- 
pressed the sorrow each man felt at the misfortune which had 
overtaken him. But it was an assembly which had never thought 
nor acted for itself; resistance to the king’s will was not to be 
considered, even had it occurred to them, and prudence forbade 
the utterance of the regret filling all hearts. 

Only one dared speak his mind. 

^^It is a plot, I tell you,” said the youth who had spoken 
before the reading of the proclamation. Those sneaking cousins 
of my lord long for the Barrington acres and the earldom. I’ll 
see him righted if I have to go to the king to do it ! ” 


18 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


“ Peace, fool ! What do you gain by running your head in a 
noose held by the strongest fingers in the world? Take heed to 
yourself and ourselves, and bring not on all of us the ruin threat- 
ened if we try to befriend my lord,” whispered one. 

God forfend such prudence ! ” said Djck, with a sob. “ You 
are a parcel of curs that eat my lord’s bread, and turn tail in the 
hour of misfortune. I’m away to the castle; he shall know, and 
so shall my sweet young Lady Isabel, that there’s one true heart 
among his people which is not turned liver at the blast of a 
herald’s trumpet, though it be but a boy’s heart, and useless to do 
aught but beat thankful.” 

So saying Dick slipped from the hands that would have held 
him, and ran swiftly up the hill toward Darrington Castle. 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


19 


CHAPTER 11. 

I 

THE GOING OF THE KING^S HERALD. 

Dick ran at his best speed up the hill toward the castle. On 
the side which was toward the village Barrington Castle was not 
moated, though on its northern end and rear a deep moat half- 
encircled it, the water for which, in case of necessity, was forced 
up from the river which flowed past at the distance of a mile from 
its gates. 

Dick made a short cut up the steep road from the town, leap- 
ing brambles and diving beneath branches, till, all breathless, he 
arrived at a well-known entrance which communicated with the 
lower hall. Here he was quickly admitted, in response to his sum- 
mons, to find a few of Lord Barrington’s immediate, personal servi- 
tors seated around the long black oaken table chatting so cheer- 
fully that it was evident no syllable of the bad news he brought 
had reached them, although the messenger sent up by the constable 
on the arrival of the herald must long since have come to the 
upper hall. Dame Winifred, the tiring- woman and foster-mother 
of my lord’s only daughter, young Lady Isabel, sat in the place of 
honor in the middle of the table; at her right was little Lord 
Stephen, Lord Barrington’s only son, whose birth had cost his 
mother’s life, but who, since that event, ten years before, had not 
wanted a mother’s tenderness, supplied as it was by good Dame 
Winifred. 


20 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


Beside the young heir sat the gray-haired minstrel, the poet 
of three generations of Barringtons and their brave deeds. At 
the foot of the table was Hugo Longbow, a soldier so courageous, 
a retainer so true, that Dick’s eyes lighted as they rested on him, 
feeling sure here was one who would aid his mad plan of resist- 
ance to the king. Beside Dame Winifred again, but on her left, 
sat Jude, the fool, who, like most of his class, was less fool than 
wise man, and who was wholly devoted to his lord. Opposite Dame 
Winifred sat the maid Audrey, whose duty was to serve her young 
mistress, and on whose blooming face Dick never failed to look 
with favor. 

Dick seated himself at the end of the hoard opposite Hugo 
and rested his elbows well forward on the dark oak, not smiling in 
response to the hearty greeting given him by all. 

I see you have not heard the news,” he said, without parley. 

‘^What news?” demanded Hugo, scowling, catching at once 
the tragic note in the lad’s voice. A messenger came up from 
the constable more than an hour agone, but he went directly to my 
lord, nor have we heard aught.” 

There’s a king’s herald down yonder,” said Dick, going 
straight to the point. He has read in the square a proclamation 
in which my lord is attainted of treason for plotting against His 
Majesty King Henry the Fifth. We are forbid obedience to 
him, and commanded allegiance to his cousin, the Warwickshire 
Darringtons, who are to be set over us in my lord’s place.” 

Hugo started up with the deep curse of an old trooper ; Dame 
Winifred clutched her nursling to her breast, seeing in a glance 
him dishonored and defrauded. Jude and Matthew rose with 
blanched faces turned piteously toward Dick, begging him mutely 


IN THE DAY8 OP KING HAL, 


21 


for denial of his own tidings, but the lad, with tears running down 
his cheeks, nodded to confirm it. 

It’s infamous ! ” Hugo blurted out, his face purpling with 
rage and grief. My lord, who cares no more for parties and 
politics than Lady Isabel’s white kitten ! ’Tis a plot for the title 
of those — ” And Hugo characterized the Warwickshire cousins 
in terms less suited to the presence of the women than agreeable to 



** He was quickly admitted, in response to his summons, to find a few of Lord 
Barrington’s immediate, personal servitors seated around the long 
black oaken table chatting so cheerfully that it was evident 
no syllable of the bad netvs he brought had reached them.” 


them whose wrath was not less deep than his, and whose sex pre- 
vented them expressing it forcibly. 

I knew it, Hugo, my brave old Hugo ! ” cried Dick, ecstatic- 
ally. I knew you’d see it as I do. Those village hinds are fright- 
ened into submission by the threat that if one of their number 
shows sympathy to my lord the whole village shall be razed in pun- 



22 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


ishment for the crime — crime of fidelity, mark you ! Barrington 
Castle can hold out against assault; do you fight the force, when 
such shall come, which would seize my lord and install his kins- 
folk and foes. In the mean time I will hence to the bishop, who 
loves my lord, and get an embassy to the king, headed, if I know 
him, by my lord bishop himself, to tell His Majesty the truth, which 
he has never heard. And then with a royal order we will return, 
drive off the invaders, and hold Barrington for the true Barring- 
tons to the end of time.” 

Hurrah ! ” shouted the little lord, starting to his feet. Hur- 
rah for brave Bick ! When ’tis done, Biccon, my father will know 
how to reward you. He’ll get you knighted, and you shall have 
a device telling how true you were — mayhap you can quarter the 
Barrington arms on your shield.” 

Time enough to settle Bick’s arms, dear chick,” sobbed Bame 
Winifred. Your plan is a dream of youth, Bick, good lad — of 
youth which ever feels that it is but necessary to point out an in- 
justice to have it righted. When you have lived as long as I you 
will know men are not so easily molded to the right. We must be 
guided by our dear lord. AVhat is his will we should do, that must 
be done.” 

“ Bame Winifred speaks like a counselor,” said the minstrel. 
" Let us go to our lord and lay at his feet all our fidelity, to do 
with as beseems him. Since we have lived for him and his — some 
of us long, too long to bear this cruel day ! — it would be little to 
die for him should he decide to hold out against this injustice. It 
would be harder to live for him, hard for hot blood to be patient, 
hut if that is his desire Hugo and Bick must curb their necks to 
his rein.” 

'V 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


23 


Hugo struck the table with his broad hand. It’s like tearing 
my heart out to say it/’ he muttered, 'Mmt Dame Winifred’s 
right. Fighting’s my trade, but I believe this is a case for craft — 
curse it ! We can’t do as you wish, Diccon, lad, much as I like 
your plan; it’s not practical. Come to my lord. We’ll show him 
that we, at least, are ready to live or die for him, as Matthew 
says.” 

Dick flung himself on his feet, too angry and disappointed for 
a word, and followed the others to the upper hall. A large fire- 
place glowed red with the forest trees burning in it, dogs lay be- 
fore it in various attitudes of comfort, while between the paws of 
the largest of them curled Lady Isabel’s white kitten, secure and 
peaceful. 

At the further end of the hall a tall man, dark of tint, with 
darker eyes and hair, a purple gown wTapped about him, sat lean- 
ing his head upon his hand, gazing at nothing with wide, heavy 
eyes. At his feet, her bright head resting on his knee, her hands 
clasping one of his, lay a slender girl of perhaps seventeen, who, 
raising her head at the sound of footsteps, show^ed a beautiful face 
swollen with heavy weeping. 

Dame Winifred ran to her and took her in her arms, her ejacu- 
lation of My lamb ! ” lost in a great sob. The girl clung to her, 
and the sound of their sobbing alone broke the perfect stillness of 
the room for a few moments. 

Then Lord Darrington raised his head, and spoke slowly, stead- 
ily, but very low. 

^^My friends,” he said, ^^you know the misfortune that has 
come upon us ; you know how ill I have deserved it. There will be 
a new lord over Darrington shortly ; I think and hope you will be 


24 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


happier than I in being able to remain in yonr ancient home, and 
will receive at my cousin’s hands the kindness I can no longer 
show you.” 

Curse your cousin, my lord ! ” cried Hugo. Do you think 
there is one of us would eat his bread or serve him ? Where you 
go, we go.” 

“ Not to the Tower, Hugo,” said Lord Barrington, holding out 
his hand. “ There would be scant lodging there for all of you, and 
it would not serve me. My hope is that later I shall be able to 
establish my innocence, and that our gallant king shall reinstate 
me. For King Henry is a brave, great-hearted youth, who would 
not wrong me an’ he realized that I was his sincerely loyal sub- 
ject.” 

“ Don’t submit, my lord ! ” cried Dick, pushing forward to 
throw himself at Lord Barrington’s feet. I came hither to beg 
you to hold the castle against all robbers, and while you hold it let 
me go to my lord bishop, get him to journey in haste to London, 
set your case in its true light before His Majesty, and — for the 
castle will hold out so long — when he has won his case a king’s 
mandate shall drive away the assault from your gates, and you 
will have held your right against treachery and injustice.” 

Lord Barrington smiled. 

You are a good lad, Dick, and if ever matters go well with 
me again you shall get your due. But no resistance, boy. Your 
plan shall be in part carried out. All the influence I have shall be 
brought to bear for me, but I will not resist the king’s command ; 
in the Tower, not in Barrington Castle, I will wait for right to be 
done me, for that is the only course open to true wisdom. Am I 
not right, dear Matthew, who served my father and who loved me 



Dick fired, straight and true, at the herald going singing down the hill,” 









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IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


27 


from my birth? And you, too, Jude, fool who are wiser than the 
wise who are fools, and true beyond all wisdom ? ” 

"Yes, my lord; I would counsel you as you have decided,’^ 
said Matthew. " Opposition would set your cause awry before it 
was heard at court.” 

" If you were a fool, good master, you could not have decided 
better, nor more in accordance with the advice of your fool, whose 
wits you condescend to trust,” added Jude. 

" Then so be it, dear friends ; and but one thing more,” said 
Lord Darrington. " For a short time we shall remain in pos- 
session; when the summons come, we go to London and to the 
Tower. Until then let us enjoy the good left us, and trust in God. 
But promise me one thing. We all hope for a happy outcome to 
this evil done me by those who should be kind, as they are kin. But 
if the end be worse than we believe, will you promise me to be as 
faithful to these children, to your Lady Isabel, to your rightful 
lord, my little son Stephen, as you would be to me? ” 

" As we hope for salvation, my lord, our allegiance to you, alive 
or dead, and to them who are your flesh, shall never alter,” said 
Hugo, solemnly. And raising their hands to the heavy oaken raft- 
ers, black with the smoke of four hundred years of fires burned 
on the hearth of a lord of Harrington, each one present took a 
solemn oath to be faithful to the young heirs on whom misfortune 
had laid heavily her hand thus early. 

With a hearty but silent hand-clasp Lord Harrington, and in 
turn Isabel and Stephen, parted for the time from the little band 
who felt their grief as their own, and the faithful souls turned with 
dim eyes to the hall they had quitted. 

" Where is that cursed herald who has croaked like a raven the 


28 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


fall of a noble house ? asked Dick, breaking the silence in which 
all had resumed their places around the hall. 

“ My lord has doubtless sent him down for refreshment in his 
best sack, that he ma}^ go away strengthened to do more evil, and 
report the quality of the contents of the Darrington cellars to 
those who covet them,^^ said Hugo, bitterly. 

^H’ll go below and watch him reel away; belike custom hath 
not enabled him to carry such hearty drafts,’^ said Dick. 

It occurred to no one to object to this proposition, nor had the 
hot-headed youth who made it any ulterior motive beyond, possi- 
bly, a boyish desire to hurl insults after the retreating harbinger 
of misfortune. He arrived at the main gate looking down the 
hill to the village, just in time to see the herald, somewhat un- 
steady on his legs as he had prophesied, starting down the slope. 
His companions had preceded him riding; owing, likely, to the 
quality of the Darrington sack, the herald had lingered. 

There he goes to summon the new lord. ■’Tis a queer world ; 
I hope the new one will be a good master,^^ said a man-at-arms, 
stupidly staring after the visitor. 

Wing the carrier-pigeon ! cried Dick. Madness for a mo- 
ment had seized him. Before any one could anticipate his action, 
before he himself, son of a bloody age, and thoughtless beyond de- 
scription, could stop to consider the ruin his action would entail, 
much less that it was murder and that of a king^s messenger, which 
he was about to commit, Dick snatched an arquebus from the hand 
of one of Lord Darrington’s men-at-arms, rested it on the shoul- 
der of another, and fired, straight and true, at the herald going 
singing down the hill. The victim threw up his arms, swa3^ed, and 
fell before the horror-stricken eyes of the men in the gateway. 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


29 


God's mercy, boy, what hast thou done ? " cried an old soldier, 
aghast. 

I don’t know,” said Dick, sobered instantly by the sight be- 
fore him. 

Shut the gates ; keep out his comrades ! God help us ! We 
shall all swing for your madness ! ” cried another. 

The companions of the dead man, looking back for his coming, 
saw him lying as he had fallen, and rode back to raise him. When 
they found him dead — for Dick’s aim had been fatally true, and he 
had never moved — they raised a shout, and one of their number 
spurred up the hill and to the castle gate. 

The king shall know of your deed, my masters,” he shouted, 
in a fury. He shall learn how you slay his messenger, shooting 
like cowards that you are. One man against so many, he on the 
open, you in stone walls, and that with his back toward you, so 
he could not see death coming from the Judases with whom he 
had just drunk ! When we come back you shall learn what is the 
wrath of King Henry ; that I promise you. And it shall be soon ; 
before you’re ready. For this one corpse we shall claim the head 
of every man in Harrington Castle.” 

Dick and his comrades watched the departure of the little band 
until the last of them was but a speck of light in the distance as 
the sunlight fell on his armor. In that band Dick knew lay bound 
upon a horse that which would lie forevermore a burden on his 
soul, for in that hour he said good-by to boyhood, and had assumed 
the crime and contrition of a man. And beyond the horror of his 
own lot he saw his lord suffering, with no hope of pardon for the 
wrong done by him, and the peaceful homes of the little village 
below in ashes by the king’s revenge. 


30 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


CHAPTEE III. 

THE ARM OF THE KING. 

Dick shook himself from the lethargy overwhelming him as 
the realization of what he had done and its inevitable conse- 
quences gradually grew upon him. He went slowly back to the 
hall he had quitted, sorrowful, it is true, but with what a different 
sorrow from the burden now oppressing him ! 

He found that, true to its nature, the bad news he brought had 
preceded him; it had lost no time in reaching the ear of Lord Har- 
rington, already so afflicted. My lord raised his clouded eyes to 
meet Dick, and the lad ran to throw himself at his feet with a 
sob that burst from the very depth of his soul. 

Have you an3dhing to say on your own behalf, Kichard ? ” 
asked Lord Harrington, gravely. 

Dick shook his head, speechless for an instant; then he said: 

It was madness, my lord. Wrath and sorrow for the misfortunes 
of this day were so keen within me that, as I saw the herald depart- 
ing, fury seized me, and, without a moment’s thought, I fired. It 
was a crime disastrous beyond my power to guess, but it was not 
wickedness that was planned.” 

That may, and I hope will, make it easier for you to make 
your peace with God, but it will not help the temporal conse- 
quences of your sin. The herald was innocent of any wrong to us ; 
he was but the bearer of ill-tidings, doing his duty in bringing 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


31 


them,” said my lord, gravely. “ Think you that after this there 
will be the slightest ehance for me to get justice from the king? 
His messenger was shot defenseless, with bis back to bis foe, as he 
was leaving my castle, whither be bad come on His Majesty’s er- 
rand. If it were known that one of tbe villagers bad fired that 
murderous shot, though my case would not be bettered nor I held 
guiltless, the entire town at our feet would be put to fire and 


r 



Lord Barrington looked at the parchment held toward him, but did 
not touch it; his brotos knit, and his lips compressed 
themselves in a hard line.’’ 


sword, both in revenge and as a warning to others to respect the 
majesty of the throne. And this is the more certain, that there 
has been so much disaffection and sedition during the late reign, 
and that even now the Lollards are being prosecuted with such 
vigor, and are stronger than they should be.” 

^‘No, my lord,” cried Dick. ^Ht is not just that you should 
suffer for a deed you would never have allowed could you have 


33 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


foreseen it. Nor is it possible that all thcje innocent people, 
women and little children, should be made homeless, and perhaps 
die, for my sin. Let me go to the nearest royal representative, 
give myself up, and tell the truth of the matter, of which your 
men-at-arms are witnesses. They will hang, draw, and quarter 
me, but it will leave your affairs in no worse, though in no better, 
state than before.’^ 

'' Still a dreamer, Dick,” said my lord, with the shadow of a 
smile. Would your one, insignificant life be sufficient forfeit, 
think you, for the life of a king’s herald? Or the testimony of 
my men be received on my and their own behalf? No; your im- 
pulse goes far to atone for your wrong, but would be of no avail 
for me nor your unhappy fellow-townsmen. We will meet our 
fate together, and this horrible misfortune may make it necessary 
to decide upon other manner of meeting it than my first plan of 
non-resistance.” . 

“ The king is in London,” said Dick. “ Will his arm reach so 
far into the north and grasp us of the village, who are, as you say, 
so insignificant? ” 

The arm of the king is long; it reaches from London, not 
only to us here, but into the wilds of Scotland and the fastnesses 
of Wales, as King Henry, when he was Prince Harry, abundantly 
proved,” said Lord Harrington. You will abide by my decision, 
of course. You will remain here in the castle, holding no com- 
munication with the village. Their complete ignorance of the 
crime will be the best defense of the people entrusted to me when 
the day of reckoning comes. It will never be known that an in- 
mate of the castle was not the herald’s murderer. It is my duty 
to save the humble people, who are truly my subjects, hence the 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


33 


wrath of the king must be concentrated on the castle. It would be 
impossible for me to hold out single-handed against the forces 
which can be summoned against me, yet I am not certain that, 
with almost sure death awaiting me, and perhaps my children, it is 
best to give myself up. On that point I should like your counsel, 
Hugo, Matthew, Jude. And you, most reverend Father,^’ he added, 
rising to bow to a monk who had just entered. 

I have been thinking, while you talked, of what had best be 
done,^^ said Hugo, promptly. It seems to me that there is but 
one course open to us. We will hold the castle against the king 
when the troops come. You, with the Lady Isabel and Lord Stephen, 
and such of your household as you select and can safely take, will 
escape by the rear of the castle and the secret passage under the 
moat, so useful in times past to your ancestors, as Matthew has 
often sung to us. We will hold out only long enough to en- 
sure your escape, then we will yield, to the king’s troops and to the 
new Lord Harrington, a castle damaged somewhat, if I am not 
mistaken, and less important in their eyes for being a cage from 
which the quarry has escaped.” 

Hugo has spoken like a worthy descendant of his fathers, who 
were true, through varying fortunes, to this house,” cried the old 
minstrel. My voice is with him.” 

And mine,” said Father Jerome. “ He has counseled as I 
would have done had he not anticipated me.” 

Your fool could not have been wiser,” said Jude. My lord, 
Hugo is worthy the cap and bells. Take his advice, for Dick has 
spun a web from which there is no escape by unraveling it; it 
must e’en be cleft with your sword or it will hold you by the throat 
till that throat’s crown, your lordly head, speaks warnings with 


34 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


its mute lips to others less innocent from the gate of the 
Temple.’^ 

“ There seems to be no dissentive voice in our little conclave/’ 
said my lord. I had considered Hugo’s plan with but slight 
variation, and thought within myself that none was likely to be 
found better. Hence it is decided. We will strengthen ourselves 
in those points which may need it, and provide ourselves with those 
essentials for our flight which we are without. Let us try,” added 
Lord Harrington, rising, to bear ourselves cheerfully while we 
wait our fate. Father Jerome, here is poor Dick, who sorely needs 
your ministering. Go, Dick, with Father J erome ; be shriven and 
do sincere penance, as I believe your contrition to be from your 
heart.” 

4c ^ 

Spring gave way to early summer, the hawthorn whitened the 
waysides, sweetened the air, and shed its blossoms, while the life 
of the inmates of Harrington Castle passed quietly. The time had 
now come when the revenge of the king might be expected. The 
necessary arrangements for his flight had been made by Lord Har- 
rington. Alone, or even with his boy only in charge, he might 
have set out at once without waiting the more dangerous time 
when the royal troops should be come to take him ; but encumbered 
with a young girl like Lady Isabel the case was different, and the 
escape might not be attempted until provision could be made for 
her safety and welfare on the journey, nor until a sanctuary had 
been assured her at its end. 

Hick had been the messenger sent on this embassy; roads were 
rough in those days and travel difficult ; Hick did not return to re- 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


35 


port the success of his attempt until May had given place to June^ 
and the summer month had aged a week. 

V/ithout loss of time the final preparations for departure were 
made. All night the castle household was busy, for in the dawn 
the escape was to be attempted. The party chosen to accompany 
my lord and his children consisted of Hugo, with four other old 
and faithful soldiers of the late lord, and Dame Winifred, whom 
it was impossible to leave behind, and whose ministrations would 
be needed sorely by her young charges, little desirable though it 
was to encumber the journey with the helplessness of women. 
Matthew and Jude were to remain in the castle, for Lord Barring- 
ton felt assured that family pride, if no higher motive, would 
assure the old harper protection, while who would harm a 
jester? 

While it was still so dark that torches were required to light 
them, the unhappy exiles from their ancestral home gathered in 
the main hall. Jude clung to his lord’s side, tears streaming down 
his cheeks ; Matthew sat with head bowed, unable to show by out- 
ward sign the pain he bore. 

“ Courage, old friend,^’ said Lord Barrington, laying his hand 
on Jude^s heaving shoulders. “ Look to the day of our meeting, 
and banish the thought of parting.” 

At that moment Hugo burst into the room, and strode toward 
Lord Barrington and Jude, a damp parchment extended in his 
left hand, excitement expressed in every motion of his muscles. 

See, my lord, what the men found affixed to the main gate,” 
he cried. The hour has come ; they have been here in the night, 
and to-day, at any moment, we shall be summoned to open to them. 
Oh, if you had but gone three days ago ! ” 


36 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


Lord Darrington looked at the parchment held toward him, 
but did not touch it ; his brows knit, and his lips compressed them- 
selves in a hard line; Jude bent forward to gaze at it, his hands 
clasped, his lips parted as if to implore mercy of the insensate 
thing. It was a proclamation sealed with the royal arms declaring 
Lord Darrington traitor, and calling for the submission of Dar- 
rington Castle to the royal troops on their demand. 

“ This proves it thrice time we were starting,’’ said my lord, 
at last. He held out his hand to Jude, then to Matthew; both fell 
on their knees to kiss it; no word was spoken. Dame Winifred 
entered, leading Lord Stephen. The child looked frightened yet 
elated ; adventure on any terms is full of delightful possibilities 
to childhood. Lady Isabel, veiled and wrapped in a cloak, fol- 
lowed; for her there was no illusion in the prospect that lay before 
her. Both gave their hands to be kissed by the jester and min- 
strel ; Isabel lifted her veil and kissed the wrinkled forehead of 
the old man whose songs of happier times had soothed her father’s 
childhood, like her own. 

Only subdued sobbing was heard as the little band of fugitives 
turned from the hall. Followed by Hugo, in complete silence, they 
slipped like shadows down- the dark stairway and turned toward 
the rear of the castle. 

Hardly had they gone when Thomas Archer, Hugo’s lieuten- 
ant, to whom had been confided the task oi holding the castle for a 
few hours to give his master a start against certain pursuit, heard 
the blast of a trumpet outside the walls, and looking from the bat- 
tlement saw an armored figure on horseback gazing up at him, 
while a second had ridden close to the walls, and was calling forth 
the inmates in the vigorous trumpet-blasts he had heard. 



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IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


39 


Surrender ! ” cried the further one, on seeing Thomas^ head 
above the coping. “ Last night the demand of the king for posses- 
sion of this treacherous hole which dares to slay his messengers 
was affixed to your gate. Open, and yield up your traitor lord, or 
we will blast castle and inmates, for we are not disposed nor in- 
structed to parley.” 

^^By false villains has His Majesty been deceived,” returned 
Thomas, stoutly. We will hold the castle against you and all 
comers, proving our lord’s innocence of your charges by might 
until he has opportunity to prove them by right of law.” 

“ You defy me ? ” cried the captain of the king’s force. 

“ I defy you ! ” responded Thomas, curtly. 

Then God have mercy on your souls. Call up the troops ! ” 
ordered the captain, wheeling. 

By the time the sun was well up three pieces of ordnance had 
been placed at intervals around the castle, and a considerable body 
of troops stood ready for the assault. 

On the other side all had been made ready for the attack; 
drawbridges were up, the moat was flooded by the crude engineer- 
ing of the period, and behind battlements and within towers men 
long practised in the use of the bow and arquebus were stationed 
to do their best to prolong resistance for the protection of the cas- 
tle’s fleeing lord. The assault opened the charge with a swift flight 
of arrows, harmless to the protected defenders, who replied in 
kind, doing more havoc to the men below than in the open. Evi- 
dently the assailants felt wisely that it was vain to hope to accom- 
plish much by means of attack on men behind strong walls ; their 
hope lay in weakening those walls; on this they bent all their 
energies. Selecting a postern gate as feebler than the main one. 


40 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


the ordnance was trained upon it, while a mine was laid under the 
supporting walls on either side. 

. The Norman forebears of the Barringtons fighting under 
William Eufus had found time to build well the home of their 
future race ; again and again was the mine sprung, repeatedly the 
ordnance thundered against the stones, yet though rock was dis- 
placed the old wall remained firm, and the sun mounted higher, 
and every hour was a gain. 

Nor were the guns of the castle idle; many of the king’s men 
had fallen, and lay groaning in the cool shade of the thicket where 
their comrades had laid them. 

Noon came, and the heat was greater than is usual at that sea- 
son. Worn and exasperated by the castle’s defiance, the captain 
brought up all his ordnance to the same point, laid a shorter and 
more powerful mine than the preceding ones, and prepared for a 
triumphant charge. The train was fired, and just as the spark 
crept up to the mine, with a dreadful roar the three pieces of 
ordnance belched forth destruction. 

The postern gate tottered, swung. With a shout, brandishing 
their axes, the assailants sprang upon it and effected the breach, 
through Avhich^they swarmed with angry cries. It had been no 
part of Thomas Archer’s instructions to hold out against the im- 
possible nor to cause useless bloodshed. When the breach was 
effected he came forward and gave his sword into the captain’s 
hands, craving mercy for his men. And just as Barrington Castle 
fell, the party of the new Lord Barrington, coming to take pos- 
session, was seen approaching up the hill. 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


41 


% 


CHAPTER IV. 

FROM CASTLE TO TOWER. 

While the assault upon Harrington Castle had held his ene- 
mies’ attention, as had been devised, Lord Harrington had em- 
oloyed every moment for his own safety and that of his children. 
A. secret passage led under the moat, and thence a course ran by 
devious paths, some of which were subterranean and others thickly 
wooded, down to the bank of the river. Lest there might be troops 
surrounding the castle, this had been the course chosen for the 
unfortunate earl’s escape; swiftly, and without a word, the nine 
souls making up the little band of fugitives wound their way 
through the narrow passage choked with the undisturbed dust of 
a hundred years. And behind them, unseen and unheard, crept 
two others, whose hearts were bent on taking this journey, the end 
of which no man could foretell. 

The long, moldy passage under the moat, lighted only by the 
torches, which served to frighten away the rats and other vermin 
no less than to guide the wanderers’ feet, was full of horrors, but 
only Stephen dwelt consciously on the immediate surroundings. 
To the rest they served but as a background to future hardships, 
and even Isabel, for all her youth and delicate girlishness, passed 
through the loathsome way half-insensible to the fear and disgust 
she felt, her mind filled with apprehensions of what lay before her. 

At last the entire distance was traversed, the last hidden path 


42 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


left behind them, and the fugitives came out into the open meadow 
skirting the river bank. A small boat with a sail similar to the 
modern sprit-sail lay in readiness, moored to a stake on the shore ; 
toward her the little party at once turned their steps, followed 
closely by Dick and Jude, who for the first time were revealed to 
the others, having kept well behind, shielded from sight by the 
shadows through which they were passing, until now. Lord Dar- 
rington, supporting Isabel on his arm, and accompanied by Hugo, 
led the way to the embarkation; close upon their heels came the 
Jester, as yet undiscovered, for Lord Barrington’s eyes were bent 
on the ground. Isabel raised hers toward heaven, and Hugo was 
engrossed in expatiating to his master on the charms, safety, and 
speed of the little craft, striving to give a tone of cheerfulness to a 
moment profoundly sad to them all. 

Just as Isabel was about to step, first of all, on the boat, Jude 
pulled her father’s sleeve. My lord, my lord,” he said: You 
will not leave me ? ” 

Lord Barrington paused, turned, and saw, not only Jude, but 
Bick, following slowly after his fellow conspirator. 

How is this ? ” he said. I bade you both stay, yet you have 
come. Surely you are mad to risk our discovery for the sake of 
a second farewell.” 

I don’t mean to say farewell, my lord,” said Bick, stoutly, 
plucking up heart to make his request now that he was discovered. 

I am strong, young, and can serve you well. I am guilty of a 
great sin, and I want to make reparation. I am half-afraid it will 
not be accounted for me if I go with you, because I should be 
wretched left behind, and yet I dare hope that if I, who plunged 
you deeper in misfortune, do all I cun for you now, the good God 



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IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


45 


will let me be useful to you, since He sees the heart, and knows 
that I should be happy if He would let me die for you/’ 

Lord Harrington could not listen unmoved to the pathos of the 
simple sincerity of this speech ; he held out his hand, saying : I 
am not used to change my mind. Hick, and I ordered you to stay 
at the castle, yet I am not able to resist you ; considering the plea 
you make, and the ground of your desire, I dare not deny you. 
Come, then, and Heaven protect us all as you would protect me.” 

And will you be less kind to your old servant, my lord ? ” 
cried Jude. Take me with you; these lips can never jest again, 
these eyes see humor if they must look on interlopers of a false 
line striding the halls of Harrington as its lords. My occupation 
will be gone, yet for the first time shall I be verily a fool, since 
he is wise who jests at life. Ah, dear my lord, my heart will 
break ; I love you. I can not be useful, but let that be my plea ; I 
can not stay without you, for I love you.” 

Tears stood in Lord Harrington’s eyes as J ude fell on the grass, 
seizing his cloak in both hands to kiss it. Jude, dear old friend, 
my comfort from my boyhood, whose merriness was but a cloak for 
deepest feeling, for truth and tenderness, can you doubt that it is 
a bitter thing to me to leave you? Believe me, it is not that I 
do not want you, that I shall not long for you, but because I love 
you I must beg you to return to wait the day that brings me 
back to you. We have no room for any but those who can handle 
a gun if need be. You are no fighter, Jude, and it would but add 
to my burdens to feel you were with us. Come, smile once more, 
dear old jester ! Hon’t make this hour too hard to bear. Ho you 
think it would be a home-coming to me if, when the king has 
righted me, I did not see you and Matthew first as I rode up the 


46 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


hill ? I ask it as a favor, J ude ; go home. My cousins will be good 
to you; make friends with them to serve me if you have oppor- 
tunity, and wait in Darrington Castle till we meet again.” 

We shall never meet,” murmured Jude, hoarsely. I will 
do your will. Farewell, then, dearest master, dear, dear children. 
My jests are over, for this day will weight my heart. It is a part- 
ing forever, between us, at least, John of Darrington, and I can 
only wait your eternal coming home.” He turned to go, bent over 
with the shaking sobs that seemed especially tragic coming from 
merry Jude. A foreboding silence, sorrow that could not be sur- 
mounted, fell upon them all as they watched the jester’s retreating 
figure. Shaking off his oppression by an effort. Lord Darrington 
turned again, saying : Come, friend, for moments are precious.” 

But at that instant the tall figure of Father Jerome, in his 
Benedictine habit, came swiftly down the meadow, and Isabel, 
snatching Stephen’s hand, ran to meet him. 

Bless us. Father,” she sobbed, falling on her knees before 
him. “ Bless us, and oh, pray for us, for how and when shall we 
see these dear fields again ? ” 

You will see them, dear child, but with eyes no longer un- 
acquainted with grief. Bear what you are to meet like the daugh- 
ter of your fathers, like the daughter of Almighty God. Keep 
your heart pure, your trust unfaltering, and remember you can 
bear what is appointed you, for God will sustain you. Be 
noble in soul, worthy your name and your faith, and one day you 
will return to be lady of Darrington. 

^^And you, my little boy, keep your innocence, to render it 
unsullied to God. Do not forget when the hour comes that heaven 
is better than earthly glories, and the title of the saints than to 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


47 


be Lord Darrington. Farewell, dear charges whom I love. God 
bless you with His power, as I do in my weakness ! 

The priest extended his hands over the fair head of the boy 
and the coif covering IsabeFs beautiful hair. She listened to his 
words, her heart heavier than before, for Father Jerome was ac- 
counted a saint among the people, and said to have the gift of 
prophecy, and in his words she read a hint that her beloved little 
brother’s short race would soon be run. 

Go, my children, your father must not be delayed,” said the 
priest, raising them. He and I parted last night. . I wdll 
not add to the solemn words then spoken. Here I will watch your 
setting forth, and my love and my prayers will follow every foot of 
your Calvary.” 

Eendered more sorrowful, if that were possible, by Father 
Jerome’s words, yet stilled by their solemnity and sustained by 
their appeal to the highest motives, human and divine, Isabel 
arose, and, taking Stephen’s hand, returned to her father’s side. 
With no more delay they embarked. The little craft was already 
provisioned with food for three days, at the end of which time, 
if ever, they must have reached their refuge. Isabel and Dame 
Winifred were seated in the stern, facing Hugo and Dick, who 
were appointed their particular guardians. Lord Darrington kept 
Stephen with him in the bow ; between these divisions of the family 
sat the four men-at-arms, who were to defend them in case of 
necessity, or row them should the wind fail. A light but steady 
breeze had risen with the sun, and when her painter was hauled 
in the little boat leaped out into the stream to meet it as if she 
were rejoicing to be free, and understood that on her best effort 
hung the precious lives she carried. 


48 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


The plan decided upon was to make progress down the river 
southward, as far as was possible by water, to Glastonbury, where, 
through the influence of Father Jerome, Lord Barrington could be 
safely hidden, or, if need be, transported to France. At the abbey, 
if it were reached safely, Isabel would be met by an escort which 
would convey her to her aunt, who was Superior over a community 
of Benedictine nuns in an abbey south of Iiouen. Arrangements liad 
been made that horses, with a sufficient escort, were to meet Lord 
Barrington’s party at the terminal of the river courses over which 
they were to pass. For this, as for most of the plan laid for their 
rescue, they were indebted to the power and the widespread con- 
nections of the Benedictine Order, through the mediation of 
Father Jerome. 

The wind with which they set out held throughout the entire 
day, and, except for a necessary landing to build a fire and cook 
their noon-day meal, they made the best possible use of it, so that 
at nightfall they were far on their way, and had left York well 
behind them. The journey through the beautiful June day, past 
the smiling banks of the river, the green fields stretching beyond 
having the characteristic loveliness of England of the present day, 
would have been delightful. save that the eyes of each of those in 
the boat (unless Stephen be excepted), speeding on so pleasantly, 
looked on the fair picture unseeing. 

At night they encamped beside the bank, sleeping but little, 
and early dawn found them once more setting forth. The v/ind 
had shifted during the night, and the course of the second day had 
to be made by tacking, and was in consequence, far slower. Late in 
the afternoon a small party of horsemen was seen in the dis- 
tance, apparently reconnoitering. They were from the north. 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


49 


and the sight of them filled the occupants of the boat with un- 
easiness. 

Camp was made with special care that night ; though the others 
had been able to convince themselves that the band of horsemen 
they had seen had no connection with their fortunes, Lord Bar- 
rington and Isabel, who remembered with dismay the prophetic 
words of both Father Jerome and the jester in parting, were less 



But at that instant the tall flpure of Father Jerome, in his Benedictme 
habit came swiftly down the meadoio, and Isabel, snatching 
’ Stephen’s hand, ran to meet him.” 


easy in dismissing the subject from their minds. Owing to this 
fact Lord Barrington arranged that his daughter and Bame Wini- 
fred, with Hugo to guard them, should lie on the river bank. In 
case of alarm Hugo was to make at once for the boat with the 
two women, and try under cover of darkness to slip away with 
Isabel into safety. Once again he kept Steplien with himself; on 
the boy hung the hopes of the legitimate line of Barringtons, per- 
haps this was why the father could not bear to entrust his safety 
to another. 


50 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


The larger number of this little party, consisting of the five 
men, Lord Carrington, and the boy, lay for the night some two 
hundred feet farther inshore than Lady Isabel, her attendant, and 
Hugo; in case of danger it would reach the inland position first. 

Shortly before midnight a crackling of twigs warned the sentry 
that some one was approaching. He challenged, but there was no 
response. It was dark under the trees, and he tried in vain to 
make out a figure under their shade. Kaising his arquebus he 
fired; it was the signal for a sudden tumult. 

Lord Harrington sprang to his feet, thrust Stephen into a 
barricade of dry branches prepared for such an occasion, and took 
his stand before the child. As he did so, and as Dick and his other 
four men leaped up, weapons ready, twenty men burst through 
the trees from three sides, calling upon Lord Harrington to sur- 
render in the king’s name. 

By what right do you summon me to surrender to you, un- 
less it be that you outnumber us by more than thrice as many ? ” 
demanded the earl. He had glanced over his shoulder, and saw 
that Hugo' and Winifred were carrying out by force the orders 
he had given in regard to his daughter, who, seeing her father in 
danger, strove frantically to free herself from her friends and got 
to him, regardless of herself or his desires. 

A little time will be required to get her off,” thought Ijord 
Harrington, and resolved to gain it by parleying. Are you out- 
laws, or who and what are you, who use the king’s name with 
somewhat too great freedom ? ” 

Outlaws ? We are the king’s men, who, when we had taken 
Harrington Castle — for it is now in our hands and your cousin its 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


51 


lord — when we had made your impudent garrison surrender, and 
found you fled, rode after you in hot haste, and will carry you 
to London to rot in the Tower in fulfilment of His Majesty’s 
commands.” 

I have no proof that you are from the king,” retorted Lord 
Barrington. Thank God they have got her off at last,” he 
thought, glancing toward the shore. “ I am outnumbered, but a 
brave man sells his liberty dear. I will not surrender.” 

Then have at you ! ” cried the leader, with an oath, thrusting 
suddenly with his naked sword at the earl. 

But Lord Barrington, scholarly though his tastes, had been 
bred to arms, and was as expert a swordsman as any in the king- 
dom. He parried the thrust with his broadsword, and by a quick 
turn inserted his blade in the visor of his opponent’s helmet, and 
might have pierced his brain, but stayed his hand. 

Generosity was wasted on the men with whom the earl’s party 
had to deal. So far from being grateful for the clemency that 
spared his life, the man was furious, and set upon Lord Barring- 
ton like a wild beast. In the mean time, seeing that battle was the 
order of the day, or, more proper!}^, the night, each of Lord Bar- 
rington’s little band of followers had engaged with an opponent, 
Bick, with the best heart in the world, throwing himself into the 
scrimmage with such fury that for a few moments it actually 
looked as though superiority in zeal and spirit might make up for 
inferiority of numbers. This encouraging illusion could not last, 
however ; three to one were odds too heavy to admit of more than a 
brief apparent victory. The hope that Lord Barrington entertained 
of slipping away through the trees, and thus escaping in the dark- 
ness, was doomed to speedy extinction. In a short time all four of 


52 


IN THE DAYS 6F KING HAL. 


his men-at-arms lay disarmed, two of them wounded, on the soft 
moss. True, there were several of their foes groaning and bleed' 
ing on the ground, but at least fourteen were whole and sound, 
while of Lord Barrington’s party only he and Dick were still upon 
their feet and fighting. It took six men to overpower the earl, 
who fought as only desperate men can fight who see their last hope 
vanishing. Breathless and panting he felt his sword wrenched 
from him, while arms and legs, wound in unknown ways around 
his own, forced him to the earth. 

Yield, you traitorous devil ! ” cried one, roughly, with a kick 
and an oath. The evil one has fought with you this night.” 

I don't yield ; I am overpowered,” gasped Lord Barrington. 

Traitor was I never. Keep a civil tongue when you speak to a 
peer of the realm.” 

“Y^ou’re no peer; you’re not only made a commoner like us, 
but lower than us, for we are true men, while you are a traitor,” 
growled his captor. Do you think ’twill mend your case- that you 
fight the king’s men come to take you, and resist the law ? ” 

You have me a prisoner, but I am not reduced to discussing 
my affairs with such as you,” retorted my lord proudly, while his 
eyes anxiously sought out Dick and the spot where Stephen lay 
hidden. 

Dick had sprung back when he saw his lord captive, and plant- 
ing his back against a tree resolved to fight to the last gasp, more 
well than wisel}^, since the result was inevitable. In that advan- 
tageous position he managed to do considerable further damage, 
and laid about him with a valor which rendered it no slight task 
to rush in and disarm him. Indeed, one or two attempting it had 
retired with a broken head, and for a breathing space the honors 


IN THE DAYS OF KINO HAL. 


53 


of war were with Dick. In that space of time Lord Barrington’s 
captor, seeing his anxious glance, bethought himself of the child. 

“ Where is the young cockerel ? ” he cried. May I be burned 
eternally if I didn’t forget him ! ” 

Guided by that involuntary look of the poor lord, the miscreant 
went straight to the spot where the boy lay, sword upraised, and 
with an oath swore to slay him. Lord Barrington tore at the 
bonds with which he had been bound, in vain. But Bick, leaping 
forward, cleft with one blow the head of the would-be murderer, 
and as he did so received a thrust in the back which entered the 
impetuous, contrite, and loving heart, stilling it forever. 

Stephen was dragged from his hiding-place, but with the death 
of their leader better counsels prevailed among the carl’s assailants. 
The prisoners were made ready for slow transport to London, the 
child among them; perhaps even the captors had had enough of 
bloodshed. 

The Tower lay before Lord Barrington, but Isabel was still free 
and Stephen saved. Poor Dick, left face downward among the 
leaves of last winter and the sweet blossoms of the summer, had 
paid the price of blood, had made the expiation he desired to- pay. 


54 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


4 


CHAPTER y. 

A BRIEF TENURE. 

The doors of the vanquished castle had swung open to receive 
the new lord of Barrington, who, with his retinue, came up just 
in time to see it surrender to the force sent by the king to instate 
him. Besides his sufficient escort of armed followers, this retinue 
consisted of his two sons, one, the elder, Guy, being somewhat 
past twenty, and the younger, Alain, a tall, slender stripling who 
had shot up to a height which made his delicate frame look even 
more attenuated and his boyish, thoughtful face appear younger 
than his eighteen years. These sons, the only surviving children 
of Sir Gaspar Barrington — for it is pleasanter to give him the 
title he bore in Warwickshire than the new one he unjustly claimed 
—rode on his either hand. Their father^s stern face was lighted 
by an expression of fierce triumph, but both youths were down- 
cast ; there was nothing in their air nor expression that indicated 
any joy in coming to take possession of their cousins’ estates and 
title. 

At the rear of the little procession rode a lady, no longer 
young, but in that pleasant period of Indian summer pause which 
precedes the coming on of age. Her veil was thrown back, the 
better to see the beauty around her, and her face, endowed by na- 
ture with great beauty, was so sweetened by gentle thoughts and 
good deeds that it was impossible to look on her without feeling 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


55 


her charm. That she was the mother of the two lads at Sir Gas- 
par’s side was evident at a glance, as was also evident that they 
had been fortunate enough to inherit her nature rather than their 
father’s, and that it was highly probable her influence and train- 
ing, rather than his, had shaped their characters. Beside, and im- 
mediately behind Lady Margaret, rode a number of women form- 
ing her household, who, taking their cue from their lady, did not 
join in the triumphant shout set up by Sir Gaspar and the men 
as they passed under the great gate thrown open to receive them. 

The first days of the new conditions of things at the castle 
were confused and hurried. The breaches made in the strong old 
walls had to be put in condition to resist attack in case of pos- 
sible attempt to recapture it, for Lord Barrington had many 
friends in the north, a section famous from all time for its fearless 
recklessness. 

Who could say that. Lord Barrington escaped and still at large, 
there might not come a force, with him at its head, to seize his 
rights by might of arms, despite the king and injustice? It was 
not until tidings of the fugitive lord’s capture reached the castle 
that its new inmate breathed easily ; with Lord Barrington once in 
the Tower of London he had good reason to believe that he was 
safe forever from the cousin he had wronged. 

It was not until this news arrived that the tenants and de- 
pendents of the deposed lord came forward to make terms with 
the powers that were. They loved Lord Barrington, and would 
gladly have been faithful to him, but necessity breeds sycophants ; 
if their lord was indeed gone from them forever, they must live, 
and how could they live save by the grace of the newcomer ? So, 
cap in hand, one by one each humbly came to make his obeisance 


56 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


to fate in the person of Sir Caspar. All but a few, who sullenly 
held aloof, marked by that relentless man for punishment when 
more pressing affairs allowed him to attend to the establishment 
of his authority. 

And among those who were to feel the weight of his displeasure 
was Jude, the jester, who frowned on him and mocked his orders 
like a man defiant from despair — one to whom his own fate was 
supremely indifferent. Matthew, the minstrel, older, with the fires 
of life spent, bowed to his grief and passed unnoted. 

Scarce eight days had passed since the gate of Barrington Cas- 
tle had admitted its new lord, when there appeared one morning, 
riding up the hill, a knight with plumed helmet and bright armor 
sparkling in the sunshine. With him rode two others of like de- 
gree, and behind the three another three, evidently squires. 
Straight up the hill they came, bound unquestionably to the castle, 
but whether as friends or foes no one could predict. 

Close the gates ; let no one pass till we know his errand ! ” 
ordered Sir Caspar. If there be but six they may enter, what- 
ever their errand, but there may be a ruse in this apparently liarm- 
Icss band coming openly in the full light of day ; it is our wisdom 
to be cautious, with enemies and disaffection surrounding us.’’ 

Obedient to these commands the great gate swung to, was 
bolted and barred just as the strangers halted, and one of the 
squires blew a trumpet blast announcing their arrival. Not receiv- 
ing an immediate answer to this message, the knight in advance 
turned in his saddle with the motion of one who had not learned 
the art of waiting, and motioned to the squires to knock on the 
gates. With the heartiest good-will in the world, two of the three 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


57 



attendants dismounted and sprang forward, one of them dealing 
a tremendous blow with his ax on the iron-bound oak. 

A warder leaning down from above hailed him. 

Who are you, and what is your errand ? he demanded, an- 
grily. You show scant courtesy. Is it your custom to batter the 
walls of each and every castle you pass, regardless of whether you 
are at peace or war with its lord ? 


With the heartiest good-will in the world, two of the three attendants 
dismounted and sprang forward, one of them dealing a tre- 
mendous blow with his ax on the iron-bound oak." 

And is it your custom to sleep at noonday, that you can not 
hear a trumpet -blast that would wake them sleeping at Ephesus ? 
retorted the other. Here is a noble lord who would speak with 
Sir Gaspar Darrington.^^ 

Lord Gaspar Harrington, so please you,’’ returned that gen- 
tleman’s follower. What is your business with him ? ” 

The business is mine, good fellow,” said' the knight who had 


58 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


given the order to knock at the gate. I have ridden down from 
farther north to propose a trial of courage and arms to your lord, 
which, if report say true of him, he will not refuse. Tell him 
that a knight, nameless for the nonce, but of station equal, at least, 
to his own, and whose metal hath been tried, would speak with 
him.^’ 

Have you ridden with other companions than those I see ? 
My lord has reason to doubt the fidelity of some in this northern 
country, and will not open unless he is secure from an ambush,” 
said the man on the wall. 

Reason to do more than doubt,” muttered the knight, in his 
visor. Then aloud he said : Hone has come with me, nor knows 
of my coming, save these five you see ; there is no ambush and no 
design back of my demand than that I will make plain to him.” 

The man disappeared, and after a short time the bolts were 
heard creaking in their bars, and the gate swung open enough to 
allow the riders to pass in single file into the first court. Here the 
six dismounted, and, giving their horses into the hands ready to 
receive them, they followed their leaders; the squires to join the 
men in the servants’ hall, the three knights to mount to the great 
hall Avhere Lord Harrington and his daughter had learned of their 
coming misfortunes. 

* Sir Caspar was seated in Lord Harrington’s chair; the knight, 
whose figure and bearing showed him to be much younger than 
the usurper of the castle, laid his hand involuntarily on his sword- 
hilt, as if the sight of the black-browed figure lolling in the true 
lord’s seat angered him. 

After a moment’s halt he advanced toward this figure and 
said : Sir Caspar Harrington — for I will not salute you by a 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


69 


title rightfully worn by a better man — he paused a moment, and 
his voice sounded hoarse and thick — Indeed, still borne by him — 
since the king has bestowed it on you but through misinformation, 
and will return it to that rightful claimant — ” 

Who are you that dare insult me on my own hearth ? 
shouted Sir Caspar, starting up. 

Truth is not insult. Sir Caspar, though no insult stings so 
keenly,” returned the other, quietly. I am prepared, nay, I have 
come to make good my words. As to who I am, I am a peer of the 
realm, your superior in birth; thank Cod, in honor, also. I am a 
friend, many years his junior, of that good and upright gentle- 
man, Lord Darrington. I accuse you, his kinsman, of perfidy to 
him. I accuse you of plotting to get his estates and title by making 
him appear traitor to the king. And I accuse you of forging the 
proofs and buying the perjured witnesses by which, and by whom, 
you have succeeded with His Majesty in attaining your ends. 

But I exonerate from more than suspicion of your crimes, and 
of the slightest participation in them, your sons, who are not yours 
in heart, and the noble lady who is your wife.” So saying, the 
young knight bowed deeply toward the other side of the hall, where 
Lady Margaret and her sons were seated. 

Shame and fear clutching their hearts that their worst sus- 
picions of the man they called husband and father were about to 
be verified by this stranger, who spoke with the assurance of per- 
fect knowledge, made Lady Margaret seize a hand of each of her 
sons, and prevented the latter from moving hand, foot, or tongue 
to their father’s assistance. 

Sir Caspar had fallen back in his chair and stared at the 
knight, rage, terror, amazement chasing each other over his pur- 


60 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


pling face ; a slight foam gathered on his lips ; he tried to speak, 
but his tongue was powerless. 

The stranger continued : I have come hither to tell you this, 
and to challenge you, as the champion of the man you have 
wronged, to make good on your person the statements I have made. 
That Lord Barrington will be righted I am certain, but justice is 
slow, and God will let my arm be the means to avenge one who has 
shown me and mine much kindness in days gone by. Sir Gaspar 
Barrington, you are a thief, a liar, a forger, treacherous to your 
blood, deceitful to your king. There lies my glove. Pick it up, 
and let us try in mortal combat whether truth is with you or with 
me; coward you are not.” 

Lady Margaret covered her face with her hands. Long had she 
known that the man she had married was not the man she could 
have loved and trusted ; faithfully had she watched and guarded, that 
her children should not grow like him. Now the words she listened 
to fell on her ears like a knell, and she knew that, whether he lived 
or died, she was widowed indeed. 

Not a word, Guy, Alain,” she whispered. It is your father’s 
quarrel. It is not for you to interfere between the judgments 
of Almighty God.” For the good lady shared the belief of her 
day, that in a solemn appeal to God to prove the right the termina- 
tion of a combat was the revelation of His will. 

The word coward ” seemed to arouse Sir Gaspar from his im- 
potence. It was with a deep oath that he started up, raised the 
mailed glove from the floor where the knight had cast it, and said 
hoarsely : Follow me ! ” 

^^Make your peace with God, be shriven; I will wait your 
pleasure,” said the young stranger. As you know your guilt, so 



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1 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


63 


you know what the termination of our encounter must be. and I 
would not send you into eternity with such crimes upon your soul/’ 

“ I’ll tear your soul out of your body if you speak again,” 
growled Sir Gaspar, with a livid face, advancing a step, with his 
hands crooked like a wild beast’s claws. 

Father, let me go with you,” cried Guy, springing forward. 

Come, if you will,” muttered his father. Lady Margaret did 
not move; Alain kept at her side, her hands, cold and fluttering, 
held fast in his own. Without a word to either. Sir Gaspar moved 
away, Guy pressing after him, and the stranger’s spurs clanking 
on the stone floor as he followed. 

Sir Gaspar led the way to an enclosed court on the north side 
of the castle. It was fifty feet square, stone-paved, with a low 
wall, against which the heirs of Darrington for generations had 
played at ball, but which, in the course of its histor}^ had already 
looked on less peaceful scenes. 

In their passage through the castle Sir Gaspar had summoned 
two of his men to attend him and see that justice was accorded 
him; the two knights who had come with the challenger accom- 
panied the stranger, to do like service for him. 

Not a word was spoken as Sir Gaspar donned the light armor 
customary in foot combats, while Lord Barrington’s champion 
divested himself of his heavier pieces. Short swords were the 
weapon ; the stranger, ready first, played with his as he waited, his 
wrist as light yet strong as any one could have desired his cham- 
pion’s wrist to be. Sir Gaspar was manifestly nervous. No one 
could accuse him of cowardice in his cruel yet daring career ; per- 
haps conscience was making a coward of him for the first time, or 
perhaps he felt that the tall, lithe young stranger, with God to 


64 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


enforce his appeal to justice, was too strong for his arm to 
vanquish. 

At last he was ready. Barrington ! Daring ! On ! he cried, 
using the old war-cry of his race, but his lips w^ere dry and the 
voice that uttered it was hoarse. 

“ God and the right ! cried the stranger, his voice ringing out 
in the echoing court. 

From the first thrust the combat was deadly. Sir Gaspar 
fought desperately, lunging forward to pierce the openings in the 
young man’s armor. His opponent was quiet, parrying, thrusting 
with the lithe grace of a cat. His combat was defensive, not offen- 
sive, at the start ; not a thrust of Sir Gaspar’s got home, yet as he 
parried he contrived to make an occasional move which nearly 
made Sir Gaspar’s blood fiow, and drove him to fury, manifestly 
decreasing his power. 

Have a care. Sir G aspar ; go slowly ! ” cried one of his men, as 
a wild lunge on his part, missing its mark, left his raised arm un- 
defended, and the point of Lord Barrington’s champion’s sword 
grazed his side. 

Guy neither spoke nor moved. All the dark memories of his 
childhood, all the growing disapproval of his father felt in his 
dawning manhood, all the horrible doubts of his course in regard 
to their cousins in the past few months, passed swiftly before him ; 
like his mother, he felt it was an appeal to arms, and to omniscient 
J ustice. 

Sir Gaspar was plainly losing all self-control; he breathed 
heavily, his thrusts fell each time wider of their mark. Suddenly 
his opponent drew himself up to his full height, grasped his sword 
closer to the blade, and assumed the offensive. His blows rained 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


65 


with lightning speed, sure as they w^ere swift; Sir Gaspar found 
his ow^n defense almost beyond his skill. The stranger closed in 
upon him, shortening the range at every blow. The onlookers held 
their breath; the end was near, inevitable. 

At last it came. A quick, rapid feint toward the right, followed 
by a deadly thrust to the left, pierced Sir Gaspar’s throat, glancing 
downward till the short sword was buried two-thirds to its hilt. 

Yield, villain ! cried the stranger, throwing up his visor, and 
speaking for the first time. Sir Gaspar sank on his right arm, his 
sword fell from his fingers, the left hand clutched agonizedly at 
the neck of his shirt of mail, and he raised dying eyes to look at 
the face of him who had avenged his sin. 

‘‘ Kobert Aymond ! ’’ he gasped. 

^^Eobert Aymond, lord of Carnaymond, grandson of your 
grandsire’s friend,^^ assented the young knight. He was true to 
Barrington as you were false; it was fitting that mine should be 
the hand to wreak the justice of Heaven upon you.” 

Enough, young sir ; it is wrought, he is dying. Leave him to 
me, priest and chirurgeon,” said Father Jerome, whom one of the 
men haJ hastily fetched. Leave us ! And you. Sir Guy, summon 
your mother and your brother.” 

Come with me, sir. You have slain my father, but you shall 
have the courtesy you merit. Your challenge was open, you have 
fought well ; we bow to the will of Heaven,” said Guy. And he and 
Ijord Eobert left the court together. 

When the sun rose again Sir Gaspar was dead, and Guy was, by 
force of circumstances, lord over Barrington. The champion of 
Lord Barrington had ridden away at sunset; the castle lay silent 
under the tragedy enacted within its walls. 


66 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


At noon the town^s people climbed the hill, and the inmates of 
the castle gathered at the main entrance to hear read to them 
the proclamation setting forth the death of their new lord, and the 
accession of his son to the title of Lord Gny. 

Those who had hesitated from acclaiming the dead man who 
had usurped the title felt that Providence had supplied them with 
a solution to their difficulties in the person of his son. When 
the last words were read, and the pause which followed them had 
rested over the assembly for a moment, the air was rent with 
cheers for the new lord. 

Young, untried, handsome, with the goodness of his mother in 
his looks, Guy stood before them bowing. Hurrah for Lord 
Guy ! Heaven bless the young lord ! ” cried men and women to- 
gether, throwing up hands, caps, and kerchiefs in the air. 

I will do my faithful best to be a good lord to you,” said the 
youth, simply. 

And thus the lordship of Harrington passed again into new 
hands. 

^^But it shall not be for long,” said Guy, watching the 
crowd melt away toward their homes. He leaned heavily on his 
brother’s shoulder as he spoke, for his heart was heavy within 
him. 


IN THE DAY8 OF KINH HAL. 


67 


CHAPTER VI. 

A KNIGHTLY ENTERPRISE. 

The young Sir Guy, who had so suddenly and tragically suc- 
ceeded to the honor his father had filched from his cousins, hav- 
ing been proclaimed and accepted as lord over Harrington, showed, 
as days went by, no less heaviness of heart than at first. 

The problem to the solution of which he set his keen young 
wits, cordially seconded by his mother and brother, was not how 
to strengthen his position, but how most speedily to right the wrong 
that had been done, reinstate the legitimate earl, and return to his 
own baronetcy in Warwickshire. That Lord Harrington had been 
captured he knew, and subsequent reports said that Stephen, but 
not Isabel, had been taken with him to London. The young girl 
had escaped; what was the fate of any of the family the occu- 
pants of the castle did not know, but there was good reason to fear 
that the punishment falling on the head of the innocent man 
accused of treason would be swift and severe. 

Father Jerome, taken into the counsels as to the best way to 
reach the king’s ear, had offered to ride to London, first stopping 
at one or tw^o abbeys of his Order most powerful to aid them, and 
thus bring to bear on King Henry the influence of the Benedic- 
tines, backed by the written plea of Sir Guy and Lady Margaret 
to reinstate their cousin. If necessary, they were resolved to get 
from Lord Robert Aymond the proofs which they all believed he 


68 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


possessed of the wrong committed by Sir Caspar; so thoroughly 
in earnest in making restitution were all three of his survivors 
that, rather than perpetuate the wrong by which they were then in- 
nocently profiting, they would sacrifice Sir Caspar’s good name, 
if it was required of them, to bring the right about. 

But hoping to avoid this exposure of the crimes of the dead. 
Father Jerome had ridden away to set in motion the great influ- 
ence of the bishops, priests, and monks of the vast Benedictine 
Order, of which he was a member of no little repute, being himself 
certain, it was said, to succeed to an important bishopric. 

Xews traveled slowly in those days: it was not known in the 
castle that, even as Father Jerome passed through its gates on his 
errand, the king was embarking for that tremendous campaign in 
France which was to end in Agincourt. 

Life in the castle moved on somewhat dully after he had gone. 
The young heir found his hours filled and his wisdom taxed in’ the 
administration of the affairs of his new estate, duties he performed 
with the more anxious conscientiousness that he felt he was but 
acting as Lord Barrington’s steward ; in these matters he was 
guided by the rare wisdom of his mother, a woman as prudent yet 
brave as any king’s counselor, and far more unselfish than the ma- 
jority of them who take part in politics. 

Alain, during these days, was left much to himself. Always 
something of a dreamer, yet with the love of adventure common to 
his race in his veins, he had been a puzzle to his elder brother, who 
was formed to be wholly a man of action. Though to his mother he 
was, if such a thing could be to a woman as just as she, the favorite 
of her two sons. 

In the northwestern corner of the castle there was a room open- 


JN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


69 


ing upon a sheltered garden which a century earlier had been the 
apartment of the Countess of Barrington. Tradition said that she 
was fair both in mind and body, but that her husband, years her 
senior, distrusted her, and in a fit of mad jealousy one day slew 
her. Remorse and tardy justice to her innocence drove him half 
mad; he had died on a penitential pilgrimage to Rome, leaving 



““ The excitement of the past hour shone in his eyes ; hefore he had spoken. 
Lady Margaret caught the alarm and deto to her elder son, certain 
that the younger had evil tidings to communicate.” 


ail of his unentailed estate to charity in expiation. It was said 
that the shade of the unhappy lady w'alked by times in the garden 
and in the room where she had lived and died so sadly. In the 
course of time a tale had grown up, based on the reports of those 
who claimed to have seen the vision, that a figure white-clad, of 
course — veiled, yet showing a blanched face beneath the veil — went 
wringing its hands up and down the deserted garden, and sobbed 



70 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


to the drear walls of the old-time boudoir, and that the apparition, 
after the fashion of all family specters, appeared but in the hour 
of misfortune, or to announce calamity to the Darringtons. 

The place of these unhappy wanderings was avoided by all in 
the castle, whether of high or low degree, but the tale had an ex- 
traordinary fascination for Alain, and, far from avoiding its re- 
puted scene, ho lingered much in the room and the garden where 
his ancestor had committed the crime which had made a specter of 
his unfortunate wife. With awe-struck curiosity, half desire, half 
fear, he often sought the haunted chamber ; that the dead could, 
and sometimes did, return to the world of flesh he never doubted. 

One night, two weeks after his father’s death, he sat, as was his 
wont just at dusk, in a corner of the garden even more densely 
overgrown with the heavy, down-drooping branches of the trees 
and tall, tangled undergrowth, than was the rest of the neglected 
spot. The day was sultry, hints of a coming thunder-storm were 
in the air; it had grown dark early, and Alain had ceased playing 
the lute with which he whiled away his idle hours, and the little 
instrument lay neglected on his knee. 

Suddenly he saw a gleam beneath the trees shading the foun- 
tain, a gleam which, as he gazed, developed into a tall flgure, all 
in white, with something like a soft white veil floating on its 
shoulders. Alain’s heart stood still ; he never doubted that he had 
before him the ghost of Lady Barrington. Misfortunes had 
surely crowded about the house of late, sufficient to warrant her 
return if misfortune was what called her forth. 

The courage, such as it was, with which he had looked forward 
to the possibility of seeing the spirit, oozed from his finger-tips as 
he saw it steadily advancing upon him. Terror held him its 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


71 


prisoner; he could not have moved to have saved his life, and he 
had not suihcient control over his cold lips to murmur the prayer 
which rose to them. The specter came on and on; Alain heard 
a sound as of singing, and in a few moments recognized words. 
To his bewilderment the voice uttering them was that of a man, 
feeble and quavering, but a man’s, singing in a low, melancholy 
cadence like a dirge. Were there then two ghosts, and what was 
this awful visitor from another world chanting? 

Alain listened intently, the cold sweat standing on his brow, 
and heard something that was unmistakably a dirge for the lord 
of Barrington : 

“ How is his glory fallen! 

The proud head bowed how low! 

Not so. 

Raised is the proud head, a mark for scorn; 

Ah, woe the dark hour that I was born! 

The lofty oak is stricken, 

The clouds around it thicken; 

The hawks of Barrington shall soar 

No more, no more, no more! 


“ Crowds pass by with gibing; 

The proud head hears nor heeds: 

Black deeds! 

Hark, the cry of the child in the night! 

The ewe lamb flees from the wolves in fright; 
Her love, her life in ashes. 

The tempest ’round her dashes. 

The shout of 'Daring! On!^ shall roar 
To succor her no more, no more.” 


n 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


In spite of the profound sadness of the singular chanty, with 
its varied rhythm and hopeless refrain, Alain felt that in the last 
“ no more there was the suggestion of an interrogation, an ap- 
peal to himself that made part of the terror with which he had 
listened give way to curiosity. He half arose from his seat, and as 
he did so the white figure advanced toward him, revealing himself 
as no spirit, but old Matthew, the minstrel. 

Alain was so surprised, the relief was so great, that he could 
not speak, and the old man raised his arm, himself breaking the 
silence which had fallen after his last note had died away. 

A"our father will meet the man he wronged before the judg- 
ment-scat of God ere the sun has twice set,’^ he said. The tree 
is stricken; the branch is withering with it. The slender blossom 
is left alone. Danger besets her ; she has no friend. To her alone 
can amends be made ; to her only is reparation possible. Barring- 
ton in name, are you all dastards still in nature ? I have sung the 
lament of the house I have served for five and eighty years; I 
plead for its last blossom, the ewe lamb beset by wolves. I am old, I 
am feeble — He staggered as he made a step farther toward Alain, 
who stood spellbound. “ I can not save her. There is none to save 
her, and I, 1 who alone can see her plight, I can but die.^’ The 
old man drew himself up to his full height ; tall and straight as a 
wand, thin almost to transparency, his white hair flowing on his 
shoulders, he looked like the spirit for which Alain had mistaken 
him. 

I will save my cousin, ^latthew ! cried the young man. I 
swear to you I will be Harrington in more than name. I will seek 
for her over the earth till I find her and bring her back to her 
own.’’ 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


.73 


The old man raised his eyes to heaven, his lips moved as if he 
were uttering his Nunc Dimittis, then without a sound his slender 
form collapsed, and he fell at full length dead at Alain^s feet. 
The lament of the house he had served had been his swan song, 
the prophecy of its sorrows and extinction the last flicker of his 
waning life. 

Profoundly moved by the scene, Alain knelt at the dead min- 
strel’s side till he had satisfied himself that life had really fled; 
then he rose and hastily retraced his steps to the castle to send 
servants to bear Matthew’s body to the chapel. He wished to seek 
his mother and brother, to announce to them the determination 
taken so suddenH, and on what might be termed such insufficient 
ground, but which had already assumed, to his mind, the propor- 
tion of a settled and well-formulated purpose familiar to his 
thoughts for years. Striding into the hall where three of his 
brother’s men were in consultation with Sir Guy, and his mother’s 
favorite companion was bearing her company, the lad stood for a 
moment, drawn up to the utmost height of his remarkably tall 
figure, looking more than usually attenuated and boyish in the 
uncertain light of the flickering fire. 

The excitement of the past hour shone in his eyes, trembled 
in his voice ; before he had spoken Lady Margaret caught the alarm 
and flew to her elder son, certain that the younger had evil tidings 
to communicate. 

Matthew has but just fallen dead before me in the haunted 
garden,” Alain began, without preliminary. I thought he was 
the specter as he came upon me, all white, and his white hair I 
took for the murdered lady’s veil. Before he died he sang to me a 
lament for the house of Harrington. The lament contained a 


74 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


prophecy; more, when he finished it he spoke a prophecy. Lord 
Darrington is to die before a second day has passed; our little 
cousin, his son, as I understand it, is to die with him. Lady Isabel 
alone is left, and she is in great danger. Matthew cried out for a 
true Darrington to rescue her. I swore to him just before he 
died that I would be that Darrington, and with your permission, 
my mother, I will set out on the morrow, questing for my cousin. 
Lady Isabel, until I find her.” 

You are too young and frail, Alain, for such an undertaking, 
though it is altogether a knightly one, worthy a Galahad or 
Launcelot,” said Sir Guy, looking with new admiration and affec- 
tion at the youth he had been inclined to consider somewhat too 
much a dreamer. It would be wiser to entrust the task to other, 
more experienced hands.” 

If such hands there were, Guy,” suggested Alain.- ^^Your 
place is here. If the dying utterance of the old man be true, and 
I have rightly interpreted it, you are the male heir of Darrington, 
succeeding by right to that which we would never accept on other 
terms. You can not leave the castle without a head, our mother 
without a protector. Yet it is the duty of one of us to go to seek 
Isabel on the double claim of her nearest kindred, and, and — ” 
He broke off abruptly, unwilling to put into words the further 
reason for the obligation. 

Lady Margaret drew up her tall form, pushing her son from 
her unconsciously as she did so, and throwing back her head with 
a proud, bold movement worthy the only survivor of a family 
noted for its warriors. Alain is right, Guy,” she cried. ^^He 
shall go. It is for us to set straight the cruel mistakes of the 
past months. He is my younger son, but I bid him Godspeed, for 



« < Farewell, my dear, my dearest son,’ she murmured.” 







k 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


77 


something tells me that he will succeed, and that Almighty God 
will supplement his weakness, and protect him on a course under- 
taken from such noble motives, with such a just end in view. 
Alain, you have my permission, and though it will cost me some- 
thing to send you away from me, and the hours will be long until 
your return, yet go you shall, and I will buckle on your armor with 
my blessing.’^ And having spoken like a warrior Lady Margaret 
crossed over, threw herself on her boy’s shoulder, and cried like a 
wohian. 

The night was spent in preparation for Alain’s departure. 
When he was quite ready Lady ^largaret brought to him a strip 
of blue velvet embroidered with pearls which had once been a part 
of a sleeve worn by Isabel ; she had found it in the apartment oc- 
cupied by the poor child, and had cut it out and brought it to her 
son. 

Let me fasten this in your helmet, my boy,” said Lady 
iVlargaret, lifting his casque as she spoke, and weaving the pretty 
fabric securely in and out of its carvings. You are going to 
rescue a fair lady in distress, like a knight of the Round Table; 
then, like a true knight, you should wear her colors. When you find 
your cousin — for find her we are both certain that you will — 
she will recognize her sleeve and trust you. Tell her then that 
your mother put it in its place, and that she is ready to love her 
and welcome her to Dafrington as her kinswoman, and as a woman 
who is not herself unacquainted with sorrow.” 

Alain kissed his mother without a word; he alone of her chil- 
dren had fully understood the disappointments and trials of Lady 
Margaret’s life. 

It was just before Alain was about to depart for London, the 


78 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


point toward which he should first travel with all speed, that an 
old servant of the former lord entered and begged to speak with 
him. 

Sir Guy, my lord — begging your pardon — we none of us 
dared tell ye, and in the confusion of your coming to Barrington 
you did not notice who was here the first day, and if one was miss- 
ing on the third. But now Lord Alain is going to befriend our 
sweet little lady if she needs it, and you want to see wrongs righted 
for all my dear lord’s family. I’ll make bold to let you know that 
Jude, the jester, has been gone from the castle ever since the second 
sunsetting after your coming.” 

The jester ? My faith, hut that is true ! I never missed him ! 
Where has he gone, and why ? ” cried Sir Guy. 

To London, sir, my lord ! ” replied the servant, pulling his 
forelock. When you came, and your father — rest his soul ! — 
was in my lord’s place, Jude w^ent half crazy with grief. And he 
slipped away with none but us missing him, and we don’t know 
whether he found my lord or whether the wild beasts and crueler 
men between here and London have torn him limb from limb.” 

^^A faithful fool; God grant he is safe and with those 
he loves,” said Sir Guy. It would have been wiser to have told 
me his desires, and I would have furthered them. When you come 
to London, Alain, if you find the worst fears realized, remember 
Jude, and secure his passage back to us, assuring him of our pro- 
tection and appreciation.” 

He shall not want for anything I can give him,” cried Alain. 

And now good-by, my brother ; have the Mass said in the chapel 
every day for the success of my attempt, and Heaven protect you 
all here.” 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL, 


79 


Good-by ; God speed you, Alain, said Sir Guy. I never 
loved nor respected you as I do to-day. Do your best for 
our cousins, but never forget how dear you are to us, and take care 
of your own safety, for our mother’s sake if not for mine.” 

Alain turned to his mother, and, kneeling, buried his face like 
a child on her breast. Lady Margaret took his head in her hands, 
laying her lips tenderly on his shining hair. Farewell, my dear — 
my dearest boy,” she murmured. May the archangel Kaphael 
guide you and the strength of the Most High encompass you. Keep 
your soul stainless and your heart true ; thus shall you succeed and 
come back to us soon. Oh, come back to us soon, my child, my 
darling ! ” 

And thus Alain set forth, like a knight of old, to seek Isabel. 


80 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


CHAPTER VII. 

IN THE TOWER. 

The soldiers who had captured Lord Harrington had pushed 
their way with all possible speed to London, and delivered their 
prisoner to the warders of the Tower according to their instruc- 
tions. The men who had accompanied the unfortunate lord had 
been dismissed with a warning never again to be found in the 
service of a traitor. But the boy, Stephen, was confined in the 
narrow chamber with his father, and anxiety for him made Lord 
Harrington^s lot far more unendurable than his own hardships and 
dangers. 

There was one consolation left him, however: Isabel had 
escaped. Whatever might befall himself, and even the child, whose 
only wrong had been in being the son of a man unjustly accused. 
Lord Harrington thanked Heaven every hour that the delicate 
young girl was beyond the reach of his enemies ; he knew that both 
Hame Winifred and Hugo would die a thousand deaths for her 
sake, and under their protection he felt certain she would be 
safely conveyed to France and delivered into the custody of her 
aunt, the abbess. It was not long that this consoling thought was 
left him. 

VTien Isabel had been hurried — forced” would be the more 
correct word — into the boat, and Hugo had softly pushed down the 
stream by paddling among the rushes without oars^ until they had 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


81 


lain hidden under overhanging willows, nestled between the long 
reeds, she had been too dazed by her sudden arousing from sleep 
and the terror of the surprise to resist. But when she realized that 
her father and brother were in danger, while she was safe, she 
struggled so desperately to leap from the boat and make her way 
back to them that she could be restrained but by force. 

When she was quiet enough to listen to reason. Dame Winifred, 
stroking her hair and soothing her with the pet names of her child- 
hood, made her see that, so far from serving her father by her rash- 
ness, she would add immeasurably to his burdens, and that, aside 
from the duty of obeying his distinct commands, it was the part 
of love and wisdom to secure her own safety in the hope of serving 
him. So, when hours had passed^ and Hugo knew that the sol- 
diers must be well on their way to the destination of his beloved 
master, he pushed out into the stream, and raising the little sail 
with which the boat was provided, steered their course toward 
the abbey where he hoped to find shelter, and possibly help toward 
the end he had in view — the conveyance of his sacred charge to 
France. 

They reached the abbey two hours after sunset. A young moon 
hung low in the west, the air was soft, the silence of the fields un- 
broken save by the hum of night insects and the lapping of the 
waves made by the light breeze as the little boat gently spread 
them under her bow. 

Finding Isabel so resigned, and apparently docile at last to be 
guided by her father’s desires and those to whom he had entrusted 
her. Dame Winifred and Hugo discussed at length the plans for 
her removal to France. At first Isabel had hoped that her father 
might have some chance of escaping the Tower, but learning that 


82 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


there was not even the most slender hope of this she lay hack 
silently on the cloak provided to support her, rolled up as a substi- 
tute for a pillow, and her pale face expressed no disagreement with 
the views of her protectors. 

So difficult is it to fathom the depths of the human mind, 
though it be one the development of which has been watched from 
tile first dawn of intelligence, that even Dame Winifred, who had 
loved the girl and tended her like a mother from her birth, 
utterly misunderstood the nature of the thoughts passing through 
the quiet head lying so still on the heavy cloak, the intention of 
the stout heart in the girlish body. 

Never for a moment did Isabel entertain the project of allow- 
ing herself to be conveyed into safety while Lord Barrington and 
Stephen were in danger, but, like a wise little general, she masked 
her batteries until the hour of attack. 

The monks were passing into the chapel for compline as the 
three wanderers rang the bell of the outer gate. The Brother 
porter admitted them, and, on being told that they were outcasts 
who begged a refuge for the night and possible assistance from the 
Father Abbot in their undeserved misfortunes, rang an inner bell, 
in response to which another Brother appeared, and led them to 
the large room used for the reception of travelers. The strain 
Isabel had been enduring, increased rather than lessened by the 
self-control she had imposed upon herself throughout the day, 
made her sink, half fainting, on the bench beside the fire made 
necessary even in summer by the chill of the vast, vaulted stone- 
walled room. But when she had partaken of the supper offered 
her by their host, and drank the cordial the kind monk put to 
her white lips, she was sufficiently restored to bear her part in the 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL, 


83 


discussion which she knew must take place on the appearance of 
the abbot. 

Already the story of Lord Barrington’s wrongs was known at 
the abbey^, and when the superior came, and learned that it was the 
young daughter of the generous friend of liis Order who claimed 
his help, he was ready to do all in his power to further her passage 



into France when told that that was the favor the travelers had 
come to beg. 

""Listen, reverend Father, and you. Dame Winifred, and 
Hugo,” said the girl, rising to her feet with a gentle yet firm 
dio-nity which made her foster-mother stare at the child so sud- 
denly turned a woman. "" I will not go to France. Father than seek 
safety while the two to whom I owe my whole duty are in danger of 



84 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


death I would walk barefoot over red-hot coals to get to London. 
If you love me, dear friends — if you pity me, reverend Father — 
you will help me toward my end. If you will not help me, but still 
insist on forcing me into a course for which I should forever hate 
and despise myself, I will find a means to escape you, and make 
my wa}'^, alone and unprotected, to London. But you will not be 
so cruel. Father, you teach us to honor our parents; surely you 
will not counsel me to desert my good and kind father when he 
is in danger — of death ! ” 

Her voice broke on the last two words, but she quickly con- 
tinued in her first steady manner of speaking. 

^^You, Hugo, are a soldier; I am the daughter of a warrior 
line, the line you and your fathers followed, and whose honor was 
your pride. Would you have me turn coward, be false, disloyal, 
selfish, unworthy my name and traditions? And, 0 dear foster- 
mother, remember Stephen ! Shall I leave my little brother un- 
comforted in that dreary prison while I seek safety, sunshine, 
love in France? Do you think I would dare meet our mother on 
the judgment-day if I did this? If you love me, Hugo, Dame 
Winifred, help me do my duty, and save me from a course which 
would make my life one long self-reproach. It was natural and 
right for my father to try to protect me ; it is no less natural and 
right for me to share his fate. Say no more of France, but bend 
all your energy to furthering my journey to London. If you will 
not help me, then, still more friendless and alone than now, I will 
go there without you, and in spite of 5^011.’’ 

Hugo and Dame Winifred looked with wonder at the resolute 
face, grown older by ten years in the events through which the 
young girl had passed; listened with something like fear to the 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


85 


ring of the soft voice, grown suddenly almost hard, full of de- 
termination, pride, defiance. 

The abbot struck the stone floor with his staff. The child 
is right,” he said. Do not let your love for her blind your eyes 
to her duty, even to her best interest, since, as she says, her life 
would be wretched if she failed her father in his hour of trial. 
1 do not believe there will be danger to her personally, not 
greater danger, at the most, than that the king might insist on 
marrying her to a tried Lancasterian noble. But if there were 
danger she is right in wishing to risk it; I honor her for her 
determination, and I counsel you to take her to London with your 
best speed, and I will see that the means to make the journey a 
rapid one are provided you.” 

As the monk spoke Isabel listened, at first with a look of relief, 
then with childish joy and gratitude. Throwing off the woman- 
hood which she had assumed like an armor to combat for her de- 
sire, she ran to the old man’s feet and knelt at them, kissing his 
ring and leaving her tears on his hand. Dear, kind, good 
Father,” she said, if you were sending me to death I should bless 
you for not sending me into exile from those who are dearer to 
me ihan life.” 

Hugo turned away with something very like a sob. So be it,” 
he said. You shall have your will, my little lady.” But Dame 
Winifred ran to her, gathered her up in her arms, sobbing out: 

Ah, my dove, my nursling, my lamb, you shall go to your father, 
and your old Winifred will die for you e’er she lets any harm 
touch you ! ” 

^^And now to sleep,” said the abbot, gently. Lady Isabel is 
forespent, and in sore need of rest. In the morning at dawn you 


86 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


shall all be on your way to London, the prayers of our community 
and the blessing of heaven for a good daughter following you.” 

The kind monk fulfilled his promise. When the sun had arisen, 
Isabel, wdio had wakened before the first bird had stirred, and 
risen from her couch of skins spread before the fire, was so far on 
her road that already the gray towers of the monastery were 
growing small in the distance, and by the setting of the sun on the 
fourth day she was in heT father’s arms, with Stephen clasping her 
skirts, within the dark walls of the Tower of London. 

The town was astir with the preparations for the approaching 
campaign in France and the departure of the king. Hence it was 
that the trial of Lord Harrington was not delayed, nor he left to 
languish in uncertaint}^ like so many victims of plots and in- 
justice in that curious age. Better for him had it been so, for if 
time could have been won for him, the honest young cousin. Sir 
Guy, who had so speedily succeeded his father in the usurped 
estates in the north, would have set him right in the eyes of the 
king. 

But King Hal was of a disposition disinclined to delay; the 
documents of the case were in his hands ; the witnesses, which he 
never for a moment suspected of being false ones, were ready ; this 
piece of business, he reasoned, might as well, and better, be dis- 
posed of before he set forth across the channel ; he would leave one 
traitor less in his kingdom, one less expense to the state in the 
maintenance of these prisoners in the Tower. So the trial of 
Lord Harrington was expedited, and before his friends, the Bene- 
dictines, or those in the north who knew him to be true, could 
set in motion the plans for freeing him, he had been tried, con- 
victed of treason, and sentenced to die on the block, his head to 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


87 


be set upon the Temple gate, a warning to others of the danger 
of infidelity to the king. 

The sentence was not a surprise to Lord Barrington. From 
the first there was no hope of other except through delay. It was 
to be executed at once, and the one thought of the earl was the fate 
of his children. Isabel and Stephen were confined, with their 
father, in the Tower ; there was no chance of conveying them now 
to their friends. They were wholly at the mercy of the king, and 
what that mercy might mean who could say? 

It was Hugo who resolved to venture into the royal presence 
and learn what it meant ; bluff, humbly born, uncourtly as he was, 
he determined to appeal to the young king, who was also bluff and 
soldierly, to spare the children so soon to be orphaned by his 
decree. Without saying a word of this visionary plan to Lord 
Barrington, Hugo, who was allowed to go back and forth between 
the outer world and his master, started for the palace. 

Tell the king it is an old soldier who would speak with him, 
not for himself, but for children whom he loves,’^ said Hugo at the 
gates, and the message was carried to King Henry. The boldness, 
the utter ignorance of custom implied by this request, amused the 
young monarch, who loved not ceremony and valued soldiers at 
their highest; he was in a sunny mood that day, and somewhat 
tired of the dulness of his surroundings. 

Bid the old soldier enter,” he said, laughing. I wonder 
if he will leave his children to go to France with us ; by the rood, 
we need all brave men, to show France our colder England is 
rugged in sons as in clime.” 

Hugo, unabashed, nor surprised at the success of his demand, 
stalked after his conductor into the royal presence. He found 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


King Hal seated at the end of a small table idly pulling the ears 
of a greyhound, whose long head lay stretched out on his royal 
master^s lap ; two of the court sat at the side of the table, the elder 
of whom looked up scowling as Hugo entered. But the king gave 
him a merry glance as he strode to the other side of the table, 
rested his hand on it lightly, and looked long and earnestly at the 
king, for supposed treason to whom his beloved master was to die 
in three days’ time. 

Ah, the old soldier ! ” said the king, pleasantly. What ails 
your children, man ? We are not conning nursery songs, but battle 
hymns, just now. However, speak out fearlessly, for we love your 
daring, and will do for you anything within reason.” 

I thank Your Majesty for that promise, for I have but a 
reasonable request to make,” said Hugo. I am no maker of 
phrases. Your Majesty, but one who can handle an arquebus better 
than words. I am a loyal man to Your Majesty, heart and core, 
but no less to the dear master I have served all my life, and whose 
fathers my fathers have followed since either are recorded. I have 
come to beg Your Majesty to give me leave to take his boy and 
girl into safety when he is dead. Sure, it is within the reason in 
which Your Majesty promises me my desires that I should be 
allowed to protect them for whom I would suffer all the tortures 
of this world and the next. Sure, it is within reason that the 
young and innocent should be spared and protected when their 
father dies — innocently. Your Majesty. I call God to witness that 
my lord has never harbored a disloyal thought, but will die un- 
justly, and I know whereof I speak.” 

You speak volubly for one who can not use words as well as 
arms,” said the king, sitting erect in his chair. We are not able 


IN THE DAY8 OF KING HAL. 


89 


to follow your argument, being unenlightened as to its theme. For 
whom are you pleading, what children do you wish to protect, and 
who is it who you are bold enough to tell your king is to die 
unjustly ? ” 

Lord Barrington, Your Majesty,” began Hugo. 

King Henry stopped him with an imperious gesture. 

“ Fellow,” he said, I like fidelity, a quality too rare in the 
followers of kings, but you are presuming on my patience when you 
dare to venture here to beard me with protestations of your mas- 
ters loyalty. He hath been tried and found guilty of treason by 
the courts of this realm. But we will overlook your impertinence, 
making allowance for the faith you evidently feel in your master’s 
innocence. Say no more or it will go hard with you. Now for the 
other point — the children. The girl, as I am told, is somewhat past 
the age at which she can longer be described as a child. Her future 
is- provided for ; if it were not you would hardly be a suitable 
guardian for a young lad}^ delicate and highly born. To relieve 
your anxiety, and even that of her guilty father, whose death we 
would not render more bitter by cares of his children, you may 
know that she will be given in marriage to a lord whose loyalty to us 
and the house of Lancaster will counteract any treasonable blood 
she may transmit to their children. The boy will be confided to 
a guardian who will deal with him wisely. You have my royal 
word that no harm will befall the offspring of the former lord of 
Barrington when he is dead. Now, no more. When you go back 
to your master tell him that few monarchs would have been so 
considerate of him and his, so patient with your impertinence, as 
he against whom Lord Barrington conspired. Go ! ” 

But, Your Majesty — ” began Hugo. 


90 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


“ Silence, sirrah ! cried the king, stamping his foot. By 
Heaven, am I a king or am I not ? Lead this man to the gates ! ” 
he added, turning to an arras hanging behind him, through which, 
at- the summons, appeared six men-at-arms. Go, and that in- 
stantly ! And remember you have had great kindness shown 
you at the hands of your king.” 

There was no choice but to obey, and Hugo, sore-hearted and 
downcast by the failure of his mission, returned to the Tower. 

That night the father so soon to die and his children sat in 
silence as the darkness crept around them, and Hugo and Dame 
Winifred whispered softly in a corner of fruitless schemes for Isa- 
bel and Stephen’s rescue. The door was opened by the jailer and 
some one thrust within the room. It closed again, and Lord Bar- 
rington asked : “ Who is it enters this place of sorrow and de- 
spair ? ” 

0 master, master, don’t you know me ? ” cried a voice 
choked Avith sobs, and Jude, the jester, stumbled forward, clasping 
Lord Barrington’s feet, mumbling them, and kissing his hand in 
passionate grief, and yet jo}^, at seeing once more his dear old 
protector. 

J ude, in heaven’s name how came you here ? ” cried Lord 
Barrington, raising him. 

1 ran away ; I could not live longer without you,” said the 
jester. 

Tell me all that has happened at Barrington since our flight,” 
said Lord Barrington. 

Jude seated himself on the floor to comply, and for an hour 
the little group in the Tower listened to his story. When he had 
finished Lord Barrington told his faithful fool the history of his 



Isabel threw herself on his shoulder, her arms encircling his 




r 


• - «» » 




-V t i'. 


1 



IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


93 


escape, capture, trial, aud condemnation. I am willing to die,’^ 
he said, as he ended. What matters it a little sooner or later, 
since the end is always to die? But I must leave Isabel to be 
bestowed on some one of whose character — name even — I am 
ignorant, and my little son to the training of one equally unknown. 
If there were any means by which they could be conveyed to my 
friends I should die content.” 

Master,” said J ude, since you have been speaking your fool 
has been thinking. Let the Lady Isabel put on Dame Winifred’s 
garments and lead me to the prison gates; the waiting- woman 
hath egress ? ” 

Yes ! ” said Hugo, breathlessly. 

My doublet is wide and my cloak is ample,” continued Jude. 

I will carry my little lord in my arms, the doublet buttoned over 
his slender body. Over it all I will wrap my cloak, and I will walk 
as bent with grief — God knows there will need be no deceit in 
that — and the supposed Dame Winifred shall lead me, as I gibber 
and moan. And Lady Isabel shall tell the guards that my lord’s 
poor jester hath gone stark mad with grief, and she begs them allow 
her lead him to an inn near by, since Hugo is needed by her lord 
and the jester will not follow a stranger. And they, not knowing 
she is not Dame Winifred, may let her pass. Once outside in the 
friendly night, w^e will flee for our lives, and make our way to the 
nearest Benedictine abbey, where Father Jerome’s friends will help 
us. Is it not a good plan, and will you not consent to it, dear 
master ? ” 

^^A mad plan, but yet it might — there is no other chance, 
however slender,” murmured Lord Darrington. Turning to Isa- 
bel, he said : You will carry it out, my daughter. Desperate men 


94 


IN THE DAYS OF KINO HAL. 


can not be nice as to means. God’s mercy may make the impossible 
happen.” 

iSTot now ! ” cried Isabel. It would be farewell — ” She 
could not go on. 

‘^Forever, dear? Yes;” said her father. ^^But there is only 
one day more. It rests with you to make it less bitter. Act as 
becomes a daughter of a brave race. The future of that race, 
Stephen, its heir, is in your hands. Say good-by to the old lord 
from whom you must part in any case. For his sake save the 
young lord, save your brother. If you love me, Isabel, go with 
J ude ; go now.” 

The young girl fell on her knees, and knelt motionless as the 
moments fled ; no one uttered a word. At last she rose. I will do 
my best,” she said, simply. 

My brave girl ! ” said her father. Quick, Winifred ; arrange 
her garments.” 

The sobbing woman dressed her young mistress in her own outer 
skirt, veil, and jacket. It took scarce ten minutes. 

You and Hugo will join the children on the second day,” said 
Lord Harrington. He held out his arms. Isabel threw herself 
on his shoulder, her arms encircling his neck. Stephen nestled 
against his father’s side, clasped tight by his right arm. Jude, on 
the floor in front of them ; Hugo, standing with bent head behind 
the little group, and Dame Winifred, from the corner where she hid 
her face, sobbed aloud. 

How, Jude, good friend, take the boy,” said Lord Harrington, 
straightening himself, and gently pushing Stephen toward the 
jester. Jude arose, lifted Stephen, buttoned his loose upper gar- 
ment around the boy, and wrapped his cloak over them both. 


IN THE DAY8 OF KING HAL. 


95 


That is well. Be brave, wise, silent, Stephen. Kemember you 
are Lord Barrington, and on you hangs the future of our race. 
Come, my daughter,^^ he added. Act well your part. There is 
but one thought : save Stephen ! Take J ude’s hand as if you were 
leading him. You are making me happy, dear ; don’t forget that.” 

Isabel drew up her figure, and set her lips. Her eyes were tear- 
less, but she looked like one death-strjcken. Without a word she 
o^ithdrew her arms from her father’s neck, took Jude’s hand, and 
looked to Hugo to summon the guard to open the door. Hugo 
knocked, the jailer answered. My lord needs me,” said Hugo, 
for certain last arrangements — instructions he wishes to give me. 
This poor jester has gone mad with grief in parting; you did 
wrong to admit him here. Please allow the waiting-woman to con- 
duct him to an inn. Here is a gold piece.” 

Come with me,” said the jailer. You do well to reproach 
me for kindness in letting in an old follower of your master,” he 
added, surlily. 

True, friend, it sounded ungrateful, and you meant it well. 
But it is hard to see the poor fool’s slender wit gone entirely. 
Take him out, and kindly tell your men to admit Dame Winifred 
at once on her return, for the poor young Lady Isabel needs her.” 

Ho more was said. Jude, bending under his burden, walked 
slowly, moaning, gibbering, making wild cries that caused the men 
on guard to withdraw from him as he passed. And, holding tight 
his hand, without a backward look, Isabel passed forever out of 
the presence of her father. Lord Harrington watched them with 
dry, straining eyes. When the door swung behind them, and the 
heavy bolt once more slipped into place, he fell at full length in 
a dead faint on the prison floor. 


96 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


CHAPTER yill. 

TIDINGS FROM ACROSS THE CHANNEL. 

When Alain set forth from Barrington on his adventures as 
knight-errant no tidings of the events occuring in London had 
reached the castle. Hoping to arrive at that city in time to gain 
the king’s ear, and save Lord Barrington from the scaffold by the 
humiliating tale he was prepared to tell, he pressed on eagerly. But 
many weeks had passed since the day when the herald announcing 
the misfortunes which had fallen on both branches of the house of 
Barrington had ridden to the castle, even since the Warwickshire 
baronet’s family had taken possession of it, and it was August 
when Alain rode into the capital. His prompt inquiries for news 
of the affairs of his cousins were met with the information that he 
had come too late. Lord Barrington was dead ; the king, with his 
army, had set sail for France ; no one could tell him of the fate of 
Isabel and Stephen. With bitter disappointment and grief in his 
heart Alain paid his reckoning at the inn where these unwelcome 
tidings were given him and walked forth in the warm August sun- 
set toward the Temple. There, beneath the Bar, he paused, look- 
ing upward. Affixed to a pole, with tight-sealed eyelids resting on 
the pallid cheeks, which were ghastly in the glowing light reflected 
from the adjoining walls, hung a head where so many of the 
noblest in England were yet to hang, the guilty as well as they 
who were martyrs to their convictions. Alain gazed- at this head,- 


IN THE DAY 8 OF KING HAL. 


97 


knowing it for that of the cousin whom in life he had never seen. 
Horror-stricken as he had been in his distant home when the 
knowledge of his father’s villainy had been forced upon him, the 
full realization of its extent crushed him fully as he stood look- 
ing upward at the man whom Sir Gaspar had despoiled, murdered. 
For what was this infamous death but a most cruel and triply 



The countryman rested on the handle of his rude plow, one hand thrust 
into his leathern breeches pocket, and eyed Roger suspiciously 
some minutes before answering his question.^* 


criminal murder? It seemed to Alain that the pale lips moved; 
he bared his head to the ghastly head above him. 

Pray God for me, and for my mother and brother, that He 
will not hold us guilty of his sin,” he whispered. Help me find 
thy orphaned children, and may my death be ten thousand times 
more bitter than thine if I deal not with them according to my 


vow. Amen.” 


98 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


Sick at heart he turned away, impatient to devise the next move 
in the mysterious tangle of events to which he had no clew. 

The companion of Alain’s quest was a man of something more 
than middle age, who had come to Warwickshire with Lady Mar- 
garet on her marriage to Sir Caspar ; he had been, as was Hugo to 
the elder branch of the Harringtons, a follower, both in his own per- 
son and that of his forebears, of Lady Margaret’s family, and for 
her, or for her sons, he would not have considered the value of his 
life an instant if the laying of it down could have served them. 

This man, Eoger Ash, was awaiting his young master at the 
sign of the Three Archers, and to that inn Alain bent his steps. 

What shall be our first move, Eoger ? ” he asked. There is 
nothing to indicate which is the best course to pursue in striving 
to discover my cousins. Have you any suggestion to make ? ” 

Only that it seems to me that if the young lord and lady 
were not alive we should have heard of it, and, being alive, they 
would likely be found in France, where, as I have heard, their 
mother had relatives. If not there, then I should search for them 
in the religious houses of England, and of these first among the 
Benedictines, because Father Jerome was high in that Order and 
a good friend of the late lord,” replied Eoger. 

Those are good suggestions, old friend, and my thoughts were 
much of the same order,” said Alain. What say you to taking 
the latter clew first, since we are in England? Further, it seems 
unlikely that these unprotected creatures would voluntarily enter 
France now, when the king has just invaded it for war. To-mor- 
row, then, early, we will leave London for St. Benedict’s. Stay ! 
Is it not possible that the king hath disposed of my cousins, and 
that neither of our moves will be the right one ? ” 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


“ It is quite possible/’ said Eoger, dryly. But what is the 
use of considering first that which would be the most difficult 
circumstance to deal with? If they are in the king’s hands, at 
least they are safe, for King Hal hath a generous heart and a warm 
one, and will not allow a young girl and helpless child to suffer. 
Let us assume that they escaped when their father was imprisoned ; 
a likely supposition, since there is no trace of their attendants, 
nor of that jester who left the castle after our coming. If that 
is the case, they are in sore need of help ; if they are in the hands 
of the king, they are safe from actual ill. So let us search for them 
first; failing to find them, let us follow His Majesty. You will 
go to him, lay your story before him, and he will at once place 
your cousins in your hands and restore the boy to his estates and 
title. It would not be King Henry if he did not do all in his power 
to make amends for an injustice wrought through him, though 
not his responsibility.” 

You speak wisely, Eoger, and I will be guided by you. Let us 
sup, and then to sleep, that we may be refreshed for an early start 
to the monastery.” 

St. Benedict’s, to which Alain and Eoger first turned their 
steps in the search begun at the dawn of the following day for the 
fugitives, was a rich abbey, standing alone among its rolling green 
fields, two-thirds of a days’ ride from London. Its glebes were 
rented to a thrifty tenantr}^ who derived benefit from small rents, 
as the monks did from their occupation of the land. The monas- 
tery was a refuge for the unfortunate, a sanctuary even for the 
guilty, and its proximity to the capital made it taxed more heavily 
than most of its sister foundations to serve this latter class of un- 
happy beings. 

ILofC. 


100 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


When Alain and Koger rode into the main avenue, passing 
through its beautiful farms, the peasants were working the fields, 
garnering their abundant August crops, for the rich land, irrigated 
by the Thames, was fertile beyond most glebe acres. 

JRoger dismounted, and, giving his bridle into Alain’s hand, 
leaped the low wall between the road and the laborers, and ap- 
proached a sturdy farmer who was plowing in the hillocks from 
which the potatoes had been gathered, preparing the ground for its 
second sowing of wheat. 

“ My friend,” said Eoger, coming up to him, we are travelers 
who are seeking a young lady and a lad who are of noble blood, and 
who have been most cruelly wronged. We have it in our power 
to right their wrongs, and it is for this purpose we seek them. We 
believe they, or one of them, may have taken refuge in the mon- 
astery, coming here within the past month from London, where 
their father. Lord Barrington, has died on the block for a crime 
he never committed. Time presses; if you have seen or heard 
aught of such wanderers, tell us and save us the delay of going to 
the monastery in case they have been here and have gone on far- 
ther. Do you know anything^of them we seek ? ” 

The countryman rested on the handle of his rude plow, one 
hand thrust into his leathern breeches’ pocket, and eyed Roger sus- 
piciously some minutes before answering his question. Then he 
said, stolidly : It baint for me to tell what I knows nor what I 
don’t know. The faithers younder’ll tell all ’ts good for ye ; goo 
on t’ munast’ry.” 

Waste no time on questions here, Roger,” called Alain, from 
the saddle. We must p.ress on to the monastery.” 

Ah, goo on t’ munast’ry ; if t’ lass ye seek were here a fort- 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


101 


night agone I’d not tell ye/’ said the bumpkin, grinning at Roger’s 
back as he returned to Alain. 

It sounds rather like a hint, none the less,” said Roger, laugh- 
ing, as lie remounted his horse. 

The travelers were conducted at once to the abbot, to whom 
they told their errand. 

“ I beg you, reverend Father,” added Alain, as he ended, if 
you know anything of my cousins, tell me where I may seek them, 
and, finding them, bring them back to their own, and to the loving 
care of my mother until they no longer need it.” 

“ My son,” said the abbot, kindly, I could put you in the way 
of finding Lady Isabel, but you will not condemn me if I am 
cautious. The intention you announce of restoring to these vic- 
tims of injustice their rank and estate is so far out of the usual 
that I may be pardoned for wishing assurance that it is sincere, 
especially — you will not be offended at the frankness due you — 
from your father’s son. I am not even certain, you must bear in 
mind, that you are the person you claim to be. Human nature is 
more inclined to keep that it holds, however come by, than to 
voluntary restitution. I will lose no time in investigating your 
story ; if it is true, as, in spite of a long experience of the cruelty 
men are capable of, I am inclined to believe it is, you shall learn 
all I know of your cousin. In the mean time, it can do no harm 
for me to tell you that Lady Isabel, her brother, their male and fe- 
male attendant, and Lord Harrington’s jester escaped from London 
and slipped through the king’s fingers. Lord Stephen, with Jude, 
the fool, took a different route to their common meeting-place from 
that chosen by Hugo for Lady Isabel and her woman. Highway- 
men fell upon the unprotected boy, and both he and Jude were 


102 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


murdered; their bodies were found not far from here, and were 
brought to us for burial. You shall be shown the spot, if you desire, 
for it marks the end of the elder male line of Darringtons.^^ 

Alain dropped his face into his hands, and remained silent for 
a time. When he raised his eyes to the abbot’s they were full of 
pain, his cheeks were flushed, his breath came swiftly. 

Another sorrow, and this the greatest, to the younger line of 
Darringtons, my Father,” he said. Then my brother is Lord 
Guy beyond appeal ? ” 

Beyond appeal ; the king can not alter the decrees of death,” 
assented the abbot. 

There could be no tidings more unwelcome,” said the young 
man. Our restitution can be only partial. Why could not God 
have taken the daughter, and not the son of Lord Barrington? 
Can it be that we are not to be permitted to make reparation for 
a wrong that was never our desire? Yet Matthew prophesied the 
death of this boy, and made me promise to rescue the girl only.” 

Matthew ! Then you knew the minstrel ? ” exclaimed the 
abbot. You are giving me proofs of your identity, and it would 
be hard to doubt your sincerity, seeing you now. Be comforted, 
my son; God will not reject, your good-will. It may be in His 
plans that through your line the old race is to rise to greater 
heights. I trust you, young Alain Barrington, and I believe you 
to be the true bearer of that name. But it is my duty still to be 
cautious. One thing I will tell you : Lady Isabel, Hugo, and Bame 
Winifred are not in England. Go you also to Havre, and wait there 
till you receive a message from me. I will assure myself of your 
identity and truth, and I will then send you complete directions 
how to And Lady Isabel; this shall be done so quickly that even 




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stopping short, and looking around, he saw a pale, dark face smiling at him. 







IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


105 


N^outliful impatience will not have reason to complain. Brother, 
take these strangers to the tomb wherein we have laid the young 
Lord Barrington and his jester, and then give them the refresh- 
ment and comfortable bed their weariness craves. When you have 
slept, and are ready to resume your journey, pass on to France, 
and in Havre you shall hear from me if you are in every way what 
you claim to be. If you are not, return to your northern castle, 
for Lady Isabel is safe, and you will wait forever before you learn 
from me a hint that will enable you to discover her.” 

I shall wait your message at Havre, reverend Father,” said 
Alain, simply. I am Alain Barrington, desiring nothing so 
much as to give back to my cousin all the property which is not 
entailed to the male line, a desire shared no less by my brother and 
mother.” 

Alain and lioger knelt long at the tomb where lay the faithful 
heart that had beaten under the motley garb of a jester, the little 
form that had enclosed the hope of the elder branch of his race. 
This, then, was the end; Stephen was dead, and Guy reigned by 
right in his place, but if the dreadful day had never dawned which 
drove the boy from Barrington would he not have been still alive, 
growing within its- walls to succeed his father as its lord ? Alain 
shuddered to think that this death, too, lay at their doors. He 
prayed earnestly to the innocent child, so cruelly murdered, to 
avert the sins of the father from the sons of guilty Sir Gaspar, 
to plead for them that they might find Isabel, and do the little left 
them to do to make atonement. 

On the next day Alain and Roger set sail for France, to wait in 
Havre the messenger of the abbot. They found the city under 
martial law. King Henry had but recently quitted it for Harfleur, 


106 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


and the air was full of excitement. Like any youth of his years 
and time, Alain longed to hasten after the king to see the capture 
of Harfleur, but his mission was more sacred, its pleading more 
powerful than the call to arms. 

He waited with what patience he could summon till he was free 
to depart. The days seemed endless, but they slipped by one by 
one. At last there came one at the close of which Eoger was re- 
turning alone from a stroll around the walls of the town to join his 
young master at the inn. As he strode along, bareheaded, his 
stout staff in his hand, he felt a touch upon his shoulder. Stop- 
ping short, and looking around, he saw a pale, dark face smiling 
at him, the face of a student ; its owner wore a simple tunic, and 
carried no arms save a short knife thrust in his belt. 

The follower of Alain Harrington, if I mistake not ? said 
the stranger. 

“ I am,^^ replied Eoger. 

“ The abbot of St. Benedict’s sends his blessing to your young 
master, and bids me say he is certain his efforts will not be in vain. 
She you seek has gone to her aunt, the abbess of St. Catherine’s, 
thirty miles beyond Eouen. But since the invasion of King 
Henry will make Englishmen’s journeys through this land hard, 
if not impossible, the abbot recommends you to join the king, 
tell him your story, and get his help toward carrying out your plan. 
Lady Isabel is accompanied by her man, Hugo, and her woman. 
More there is not to tell you.” 

Thank you, friend ; it is quite enough ! ” cried Eoger, 
gaily. My master has been eating his heart out in this inaction ; 
we will follow the army to Harflenr at dawn. Bid the abbot and 
his monks pray for us. Farewell ! 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


107 


CHAPTER IX. 

GALLANT ITARRY^ THE KING. 

Alain sprang to horse, rejoicing to be free to follow his 
longing and his king to the scene of action. Not only was he glad 
of the first definite tidings of Isabel, but it had been testing his 
self-control to the ntmost to stay dutifully in Havre. The 
assault of Harfieur was going on so near that, had he not been 
afraid of missing the exact hour of the arrival of the abbot’s mes- 
senger, he could have ridden over, fired a few fleet arrows, and 
returned to Havre in ample time for his coming. So when the re- 
port brought him by Roger set him free, he darted up like one of 
those arrows from its bow and covered the short distance between 
the towns without loss of a moment. 

A small fortification on the outskirts of Harfieur, on the side 
next Havre, had been taken, and was occupied by the English. 
Alain and Roger rode up to it, were challenged by the officer in 
command of the little band holding it, but were admitted on de- 
claring their names, and that their purpose was to join the king. 

Alain rode up to the walls, and, shading his eyes with his hand, 
scanned the action 'raging before Harfieur. The assault was even 
then drawing to its close. A breach had been made in the walls, 
through which the English were swarming like ants, plumes of offi- 
cers waving over the hare heads of the bowmen; arquebusiers 
planting their heavy weapons higher on the ascent, and everywhere 


108 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


armor glittering so dazzlingly in the August sunshine that Alain 
could not distinguish plan nor movement in the confused mass of 
brilliant steel and gay quarterings. 

Follow me, Koger ! he cried, all the young blood in his veins 
leaping at the sight of the first battle his eyes had ever rested on. 

We are not too late for the end, and to strike one blow for the 
capture of Harfleur.” 

AVithout a moment’s delay, striking spurs into their horses, 
Alain and Koger shot through the gateway of the fortification, and 
dashed into the melee, hoping for an opportunity to take part in 
this final act of the second event in this French campaign. The 
king dashed hither and yon, issuing orders, encouraging his men, 
fearless, as if his life were charmed or arrows harmless. Alain 
guided his horse toward the gallant figure which he had never be- 
fore seen, but toward which he looked with the admiring curiosity 
felt for the young king by all his subjects. Brave, generous, hon- 
est; in friendship faithful, yet no less implacable to an enemy. 
King Harry had endeared himself to England by those qualities 
most highly prized by his race. In spite of the wildness of his 
youth he was making a monarch soberly conscious of his 
responsibilities, and was leading England into glory, albeit 
there were many who doubted his right to claim the French crown 
for which he was then in battle. Alain, accustomed to think, and 
not to drift on the wave of popular enthusiasm, was one of those 
who thus questioned, but the sight of the daring young hero lead- 
ing his countrymen to victory against an enemy who was a foe in 
the very grain, regardless of the cause for which the English 
fought him at various times, fired Alain beyond consideration of 
the reason for the army being there. 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


109 


God for King Harry ! St. George for England ! ” he heard the 
king shout, and joined in the cry as madly as any of the soldiers. 

As he dashed up to the king, Alain chanced to look toward the 
city wall. There, on a buttress, stood an archer; Alain saw him 
step forth from among his fellows, raise his bow, and aim deliber- 
ately at the open visor of the English monarch, thrown back to 



Alain rode up to the walls, and, shading his eyes with his hand, scanned 
the action raging before Harfieur. The assault was even then 
drawing to its close.” 


admit the air, for the August heat made closed helmets hard 
to stand. 

St. George 1 England ! ” cried Alain, not knowing what he 
uttered. At the same time he turned his horse, throwing himself 
directly across the king’s path, and snatched his own helmet from 
his head, holding it before the king. The arrow pierced Isabel’s 
embroidered bit of sleeve, and stuck there, and at the same time an 


110 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


English man-at-arms, springing np the wall, struck down the 
archer with his mace, dealing a blow that would prevent him ever 
speeding another arrow from his quiver. 

As soon as he recognized the safety of the king, Alain replaced . 
his helmet, its visor down, and backed away from the royal leader. 
Pulling his rein, he turned his horse, and contrived to lose himself 
in the throng pressing every moment more closely around him. 

Who was that youth who saved my life?’’ demanded King 
Hal. I thought I knew every knight in our army, yet him have 
I never seen. Find him for me. WTiy has he done his sovereign 
such service but to melt from sight ? He carries no device, but in 
his helmet a blue velvet, pearl-embroidered strip, that looks like a 
part of a lady’s gown. Find him, and mark him for future grati- 
tude.” 

The rush of the assault bore the king onward, struggling to 
regain his lost place in the van, and his commands in regard to 
Alain had to wait convenient time and place for execution. That 
young adventurer himself, seeking a new breach farthest from the 
point where the king was attacking, rushed up the wall, leaving 
his horse with Eogcr while he scaled on foot. Like a portent of 
good still to come, as well as an unspeakable present joy, he laid to 
his soul the blessed thought that he, a youth untrained to battle, 
a stranger, without place or command in this brave army, had 
actually saved the life of Harry of Monmouth, England’s darling 
and her king. 

Harfleur was carried quickly, once the breaches were made, and 
the lusty soldiers had effected a foothold. Sunset saw the royal 
banner floating over its towers, an English garrison pacing its 
walls, English soldiers guarding its streets. Alain had secured a 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


Ill 


quiet lodging in a secluded corner of the town, wishing to escape 
the search which he conjectured would be made for the stranger 
who had saved the king’s life. It was his plan to wait upon thr 
king in the morning, when, if His Majesty chose to thank him, he 
might do so by granting the request he had to make ; he felt that 
was not less than providential that, though he should never claim 
the royal gratitude, he had a lien upon it which could hardly fail to 
plead for him should the king be disinclined to hearken to him 
favorably. 

Eoger polished up his young master’s accouterments till they 
shone like mirrors in the summer sunshine as he stepped forth to 
present himself at the door of the royal lodging. Several of the 
rank and file had, obediently to the king’s desires, been searching 
in both sections of the army for the youthful hero of the day be- 
fore, but Alain had been successful in concealing himself, and 
now, when he rode in all the glittering glory of Eoger’s handiwork, 
up to the guards stationed before the house chosen by King Henry 
for his temporary headquarters, the honest soldiers started back 
amazed, recognizing the sign by which he for whom they had 
sought in vain was to be recognized — the blue velvet embroidered 
in pearls quilted through his helmet — wondering, as men always 
must when that which they desire, and by great effort strive to 
attain, presents itself at their own door unsought. 

Good friends, will you ask the king if a stranger, but an 
English stranger of an old and loyal house, may speak with him ? ” 
said Alain. 

May speak with His Majesty? ” repeated one of the soldiers, 
emphatically. Kay, young sir, you must speak with him. It is 
His Majesty’s orders that we find you, and take you to him,” 


112 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


But a part of that can you obey/^ said Alain, laughing. ^Tis 
I have found you, but gladly will I help you carry out the latter 
half of His Majesty’s commands, since it is but for that, and its 
consequences, I have followed him to France.” 

Come with me, my lord,” said the soldier, bowing. There 
is no need to ask permission, for His Majesty will reward me for 
bringing you.” So saying, he preceded Alain into the hall, his 
companion holding back the door for them to pass ; it was evident 
that they felt the savior of the king was to be honored. 

At the door of the apartment occupied by King Hal, Alain’s 
guide paused. A page at the inner side opened to his knock, and, 
leaving the door ajar, went forward to announce the visiter. 
There was not a moment’s delay ; a ringing voice said, Bid him 
enter, and welcome,” and the page returned to usher Alain into 
the royal presence. 

There was no one with King Henry as Alain went toward him. 
He saw a young, strong form clad in complete armor seated at a 
table, the map of France spread out upon it, and the king’s force- 
ful, keen, yet merry face bent over it, studying it intently. All 
this the young man saw in one swift glance. 

His Majesty looked up with a pleasant smile as Alain advanced. 
Stretching out his hand he said : Welcome, shyest, most modest 
of preservers. I began to think St. George himself must have held 
his helmet before me to save me for some good to England when 
all the messengers I sent to search for you returned saying there 
was no trace of you apparently in all the world — at least the 
world of Harfleur.” 

‘^Your Majesty was most kind to try to discover me,” said 
Alain, bending to kiss the hand so frankly held out to him. I 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


113 


followed Your Majesty to France to beg a favor, and it would 
have been hard if I, at least, had not found you/^ 

And it will go hard with me to refuse you anything you 
ask me,^’ returned the young king, cordially. It is proverbial 
that princes are ungrateful, but my friends say Harry of Mon- 
mouth is not of that stripe. But who are you, and why is it that 
such a brave youth was not of our little party which came to pluck 
French fruits in August sunshine, a youth too unmistakably well 
born, and better bred ? ” 

That is part of the story I came to tell Your Majesty,’^ an- 
swered Alain. Is there time for a somewhat long tale now, or 
shall I wait Your Majesty’s greater convenience ? ” 

“ My majesty is young and curious, and will not wait,” said the 
king, pushing back the map. 

Be seated, friend, and pour out your soul to me, for I like you 
as well as I should desire to like the man to whom I owe my life. 
Proceed, young sir.” 

Alain drew up the stool the king indicated with a gesture, and 
seated himself at the king’s right hand. There is no one within 
hearing. Your Majesty? ” he said. Since events have happened 
as they have, and no good can be served by publishing my story, I 
would have it for your ears alone.” 

^^Ho one will hear you,” replied King Henry. Begin; I 
am all attention.” 

^^Your Majesty, I am Alain Harrington, son of Sir Gaspar 
Harrington, who is dead, and brother to the present lord, Guy Har- 
rington, who has succeeded through bitter wrong and injustice to 
the Harrington estate and title.” 

Injustice ? ” exclaimed the king. Are you come to tell me 


114 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


tlie death of that traitor was a wrong done by me; you, the son 
and brother of the men who profited by it ? 

“ Heaven help me, I am not come to tell Your Majesty that,” 
said Alain. Much as I love my king, and proud as I am of his 
honor, I would rather it were he who had unjustly sentenced my 
kinsman to death than that my father’s treachery and falsehood 
should have compassed it.” 

Now, God forbid you are speaking sooth !” cried King Henry. 

The proofs of your cousin’s treachery were piled up ; there were 
witnesses to swear to his treason. He had trial.” 

I know,” said Alain, sadly, though we did not know in 
time. When my father died at the hands of my cousin’s champion, 
who came to avenge him by a mortal combat, my mother, brother, 
and I learned the truth for the first time. We resolved to lay it be- 
fore Your Majesty, and we knew you would then reinstate my 
cousins ; we would rather die a thousand deaths than retain a title 
gained through injustice — fraud is the truer word. I rode to Lon- 
don, but it was too late ; Lord Harrington was dead, his little son 
was slain by highwaymen, trying to escape to relatives in this 
country. Your Majesty had sailed for Havre. I followed you as soon 
as a vessel would carry me. There remains alive but Lady Isabel, 
the young daughter of the late lord. She is in France ; where, I do 
not know, hut I am informed her destination is the abbey over 
which her aunt is Superior, near Eouen. The poor girl can not 
succeed to the title nor the entailed estates, but there is much 
which may be given over to her, and the plea I make to Your 
Majesty is that you will help me find her, and consent to the 
reparation all our family desire to make her.” 

The king had listened in silence to this speech, his head resting 



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IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL, 


117 


on his hand. Pity for the young man before him who so keenly felt 
his father’s crime, his own disgrace; passionate regret for a cruel 
injustice, against the reparation of which the grave raised an 
eternal barrier, and recollections of his own royal father’s seizure of 
tlie crown, the injustice done by King Eichard, passed swiftly 
through the mind of King Henry as he hearkened. 

“ Alain Harrington, you are a noble youth, as is your brother,” 
he said, rising, and begining to pace the room up and down. I 
honor you both, and I am glad, since the wrong has been accom- 
plished, that you are the ones who are to uphold your ancient 
name. But I would to Heaven 1 had delayed the trial; one short 
month would have been enough.” 

Alain bowed silently. The king groaned. Heaven help me, 
and yet how was I to know ? When proofs sufficient to mislead the 
court were laid before it, what could I do but sign the death- 
warrant ? ” 

It never has occurred to me to think Your Majesty to blame; 
the guilt lies on our house,” said Alain, sadly. 

But not on you ! ” cried the king, taking both his hands. 

Such reparation as you have tried to make not only exonerates 
you from any share in the wrong done by your father — who, we 
will hope, God has pardoned — but must be most meritorious in the 
sight of Heaven ; it is not all of us who have the grace to prefer the 
right to our own interests. As to the poor maiden, bereft of all 
that made the world to her, I will not only assent to your plans for 
her, but will further them by every means at my command. It is 
not an easy nor a safe matter to reign, good Alain. When my last 
hour has come, shall I be able to meet the King of kings, knowing 
I have always striven to obey Him while demanding obedience of 


118 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


others ? But my counselors have decided my claim to France was 
just; the blood of the slain can not cry to Heaven to be avenged 
on my head, for that 1 caused it to be shed unjustly.” He paused 
in front of Alain a moment, as if awaiting an answer. 

Alain did not speak ; he was frightened by the misery on the 
king’s face, but as he looked on it, it was gone. Come,” said 
Henry, it is too late to question that, and I have not acted on my 
own ojiinion. Forget that the king was unkingly, but remember he 
has envied you your opportunity to shake from your skirts all com- 
plicity with wrong, and do not forget that your lot is happier than 
his. Henceforth we are friends, Alain Harrington. You are of 
the royal men whose friendship may well be a king’s boast. And 
we are bonded friends by singular pledges. You have saved my 
life; we both shall never cease to regret the wrong of which both 
have been innocently the victims, though my share of the burden 
is far heavier than yours. And we will be associates in seeking 
the only living creature to whom a slight reparation for these cruel 
sufferings can be made. 

Now, as to that,” added King Henry, as Alain once more 
kissed his hand, deeply touched and wholly charmed by the 
frank and simple sincerity of the royal soldier, ^^it seems to 
me that in the present unsettled state of the countr}^ and our 
invasion of it, it would be madness for you to attempt to traverse 
it alone in your search for I^ady Isabel. Besides which, though 
you know her ultimate destination is near Eouen, you do not 
know where she is now, nor by what route she will travel toward 
it. Hence I counsel you, and invite you to stay with me. I will tell 
you, though it is yet a secret, that my plan is to march on Eouen 
as soon as possible. In the mean time we shall take Calais, where 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


119 


it is highly probable Lady Isabel has landed. Eemain with me, 
then, and we will fight our way to victory and Lady Isabel.^’ 

Your Majesty is most kind, and I have no choice but to ac- 
cept the arrangement,^^ replied Alain. 

But not because it is ^ His Majesty’s arrangement/ only be- 
cause you think it best, and because you prefer being with your 
friend, Harry of Monmouth, I hope ? ” said the king. 

Because I see no other plan as hopeful, and because, much 
as I have heard of him, I never dreamed Harry of Mqnmouth was 
so lovable, or Henry the Fifth so noble,” said Alain, flushing with 
the enthusiasm of his years. How that I am graciously allowed 
to know and love him, it would be a hard matter if I had to leave 
him.” 

The king laughed gleefully. That’s the kind of loyalty, that’s 
the sort of friends I want ! ” he cried. Half the stories you hear 
of my former wildness — and I was a sad scamp, Alain — are 
founded on my desire to get at the real man sealed up forever 
from a king. I like a friend, boy, and out of all the misery of the 
story you have brought me shines the fact I’ve found a man to 
trust, to whom already I owe not only my life, but a refreshment 
of soul you, lucky youth, can’t imagine. Page, bring two glasses 
and the wine. We’ll drink to our friendship, and to our rescue 
of Lady Isabel.” 


120 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


CHAPTER X. 

THIS DAY IS CALLED THE FEAST OF CRISPIN/'' 

Alain, half reluctantly, half gladly, lingered with the army 
and the king. He longed to be on his own business, following the 
pursuit of his fugitive cousin; but, on the other hand, this gallant 
English king, not ten years his senior, so won his heart that he 
had no choice but to rejoice in his favor, his presence. Neither was 
it possible to be as young as Alain and not be stirred to excited in- 
terest by the military movement, the clash of arms, the plans for 
a great campaign in the air around him. 

But there was not wholly hope and presage of success in the 
English camp. Sickness, death, was in the warm sunshine, and be - 
yond the walls of Harfleur were laid daily thousands of poor fel- 
lows in the trenched graves, victims of the disease which fought for 
France more forcibly than archers could. Through the beautiful 
September weather King Henry watched his army fade away, hold- 
ing his purpose unfaltering, though men were garnered by death 
in numbers scarcely less than the grapes gathered then in the 
French vineyards. 

Calais was to be the next point of attack. 

“ We’ll march on Calais like Edward, of martial memory, good 
Harrington, and we shall find the French so divided against them- 
selves under the leading of their Graces of Burgundy and Orleans, 
that there will be no concord among them to oppose to us in Eng- 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


121 


land. You will see Calais drop like a ripe plum when I shake the 
tree, and a vigorous shaking will we give it/^ said the king. 

If I may venture, being young and inexperienced in war,” 
said Alain, diffidently, I would ask Your Majesty if you had con- 
sidered the smallness of our force, the desperate illness of many 
of our poor fellows still, though the disease is now somewhat 
abating ? ” 

Not considered it, Alain, but noted it,” said the king. It is 
not worth considering. I believe our English valor — for I am 
boastful of my men and know their metal — together with the 
disruption of our enemies, will more than equal the ravages made 
by death in our army. In any case, we are going to march on 
Calais, and Calais, attacked, must fall, for surely one or the other, 
French or English, must be victors, and do you think there can be 
defeat w^aiting us ? ” 

Alain laughed, catching the humor of the merry King Hal, 
and threw up his plumed cap with a shout. So be it, and with 
such a leader neither sickness nor the clutch of death itself ought 
to chill the courage of the army.” 

Prepaiations for quitting Harfleur for the siege of Calais were 
not long in making. Alain was given a command, and Eoger, at 
his young master^s request, was trusted to an office in the com- 
missary; it was Alain’s thought that if evil befell him there would 
be Eoger safe to take home to England the story of his adventures, 
and guide Lord Guy in carrying on the search for Isabel, a labor he 
knew his brother would faithfully fulfil. 

At high noon one bright autumn morning the little army, 
sorely thinned in numbers but gay in accouterments, with pen- 
nons waving and faces shining with- eagerness to be led on to a vie- 


122 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


tory it never doubted under their trusted and loved royal leader, 
was gathered at the gates of Harfleur. 

Within the public square, in the heart of the city, the king sat 
on his horse, and around him waited the priests who had accom- 
panied him, two bishops, also mounted, at their head. King Henry 
not only believed that God’s blessing called down upon the army 
would be fruitful, but he was wise enough to understand that the 
slender remnant of men he was leading to a daring attempt, weak- 
ened by illness themselves, and having seen their comrades die in 
great numbers, would be heartened to new confidence if a solemn 
benediction were given them before setting forth, a spiritual buck- 
ler when steel had been proving ineffectual. Slowly and solemnly 
the regents of the Church went forth upon the outer wall, preced- 
ing the king, and stood silently facing the army. Then, stepping 
in front of his clergy, the abbot-bishop, who was the elder of the 
two bishops, lifted up his thin, sweet voice. 

“ Deus, in ad jutorium meum intende,’^ he chanted. 

And like a solid rock of sound came back from every mailed 
throat before him in response, Domine, ad adjuvandum me 
festina.” 

Ostende, nobis, Domine, misericordiam tuam.’^ 

Et clamor mens ad te veniat.^^ 

It was wonderful ! Alain felt his eyes dim, his voice tremble 
with the emotion the impressive scene, the familiar yet tremen- 
dously significant words, called forth. 

Not every one present was clerk enough to join in the re- 
sponses, nor to chant the Ave Maria which followed, yet so vast 
was the volume of accord rolling up to Heaven that it seemed to 
the listeners that not one voice was lacking of that great body of 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


123 


soldiers. After the Ave Maria was sung the Confiteor was said by 
all the army together, kneeling, and then an act of contrition, after 
which the bishop, extending his right arm over his mailed flock, 
gave the absolution with tears in his eyes, remembering that for 
some of those he absolved it would be the last message from Heaven. 



And now, my men, the blessing and forgiveness of Heaven 
asked, and we believe won, turn your thoughts to victory, and re- 
member that we are to take Calais, and bear it as a jewel in our 
helm back to England ! cried the king, springing to the front as 
the bishop yielded him place. St. George for England, and every 
man here on St. George’s side; it is victory and glory before us! 
Ho turning back, no delays! Cheer! cheer! and then on to 
Calais ! ” 



1.34 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


The cheers King Hal called for rent the air, rose and fell, and 
rose and fell again. The young monarch turned away with a well- 
satisfied smile. “ Few or many, T\l trust my men to win where I 
lead them,’^ he said, and not one heart present doubted him right. 

Northward the little army marched, weak but valiant; few, yet 
strong in hope and determination. The king led them across the 
Somme, and there stopped short. Before them, in all the strength 
of sixty thousand well-fed men, raging at this invasion of their 
land, lay the French army. King Hal held a hasty consultation 
with his nobles. Wise as he was, in spite of his hot-headedness, he 
had this time miscalculated. The dissensions on which he had reck- 
oned, owing to the insanity of the French king and the two factions 
rending the realm, had disappeared before the coming of a for- 
eign foe; the starving handful of the English army were face to 
face with a great body of men in prime condition, having also the 
great advantage of being in defense of their own soil, breathing 
the air of their native country. 

Ketreat was as impossible to Henry’s temper as it was in actu- 
ality. What counsel you, my lords ? ” said the king. But his 
eyes were flashing, his breath came hard ; not a noble there would 
have dared answer in but one way. 

. Give battle. Your Majesty ! ” cried two or three together. 

We are sick, few, starving, but we can conquer even thus,” 
added Alain, admitted to the council. 

Calais lies beyond that army,” said the king, grimly. We 
are come out to take Calais. What is it to us that we have to hew 
our road when we looked to find it clear ? ” 

^^Ah, to think of the men, knights, and warriors who are 
sleeping in their beds this night in England,” sighed a sallow lord. 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


125 


leaning sadly on his shield. I would we had them at our hacks, 
those idle thousands of Englishmen whom we lack so bitterly in 
our strait.” 

King Hal drew himself up to the top of his height, his eyes 
flashed Are, and his foot made an involuntary movement, as if he 
kicked some vermin from his path. Alain thought he had never 
seen him so regal, so splendid. 

I would not have one single man more,” cried the king, his 
young, strong voice ringing out like a trumpet. If God give us 
victory, it will be plain that we owe it to His grace. If not, the 
fewer we are, the less loss to England.” 

Before God, there spake a king,” cried Sir Thomas Epping- 
ham, with uncontrollable delight. " Harry of England, I served 
your father, but it would hearten a man to die for such as you.” 

Thank you, old friend. When men are heartened to die for 
their king it is a pledge of living for him,” replied the king, lay- 
ing his hand on the old knight’s shoulder. Now, as we are de- 
termined to give our cousins of France a sore struggle, the only 
thing left to discuss is the method of our warfare. We have seen 
that the enemy is flanked on either hand by woods, with the front 
so narrow that it is strong for defense but bad for attack. If we 
can but draw them forth it will be to our incalculable advantage.” 

Surely they will remember Poitiers and Cressy, and wait for 
us,” said Sir Thomas. 

King Henry laughed his merry laugh, not easily silenced by 
the heaviest cares. To be quite truthful, good Sir Thomas, I 
doubt the French memory for anything ; present fury will drive in- 
herited wisdom to the four winds, I hope. But it is sooth that 
there lie before us but two courses if they stay entrenched : to re- 


126 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


treat or to attack. On the horns of this dilemma is there a dastard 
among us who will hesitate ? ” 

No ! no ! no ! shouted every voice in the council. 

Then let the night be prepared for both in setting up camp 
and making peace with God. Let there be no roystering, no drink- 
ing nor gaming. Let psalms and prayers arise, but no ribald songs. 
God must fight for us, and we must fitly beg His mercy on a 
desperate attempt,’’ said the king. 

“ Your Majesty, go yourself to tell them this,” said Alain, go- 
ing up to the king, and laying his hand on his corselet with the 
loving familiarity King Harry liked. There is not one who hath 
seen you as we are seeing you now who would not feel the strength 
of ten to do battle under such a king.” 

" Come, then, true heart ; I could almost echo that coward’s 
wish, and have you multiplied a thousand times yourself, little as 
1 desire one more man to lessen our glory, or increase our loss, ac- 
cording to the fate hidden beyond the rising of the next sun,” said 
the king, leading Alain from the tent. 

The king’s orders were faithfully carried out. All night long 
the rain fell, chill and dreary, but through the hours the wearied 
English, serious yet brave, made their peace with Heaven ; 
all night the priests listened to the confessions and took the last 
messages of them who were on the eve of death. Welsh and Scot, 
Irish and English, all the varied types that made that great- 
hearted whole, united in the serious preparations, the grave pur- 
pose that made them great, and was to count for them on the mar- 
velous morrow against the excitable valor of their less well-bal- 
anced foe. 

The king did not sleep. Together he and Alain passed the 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


137 


night in the royal tent, the drip, drip, drip, of the autumn rain 
beating ceaselessly in the canvas. “ To-morrow is St. Crispin’s 
day, Alain,” said King Hal, suddenly; ^^nay, to-day is St. Cris- 
pin’s, for ’tis past midnight. If you live to see another St. 
Crispin’s dawn you will not forget you spent the vigil of this feast 
with your king, nor that you cheered him, who, to tell the truth, 
is sometimes heavier-hearted than he would have it known. You’ve 
shown me that the old ideal of honor is not gone out of the world, 
and 1 have been happier for your friendship. Now, I go to inspect 
the lines. Stay you here to rest, and at dawn come forth to join 
me, and hght a glorious fight under that old castle yonder which 
is called Agincourt, as I am told.” 

-The French had maintained their position throughout the 
stormy night; at dawn they held it still, and there was no choice 
for King Harry but to attack. Starving, sick, outnumbered five 
to one, there was not a man in all the English army who had 
not absorbed the spirit of their resolute, daring king. The 
archers, throwing aside fettering leathern jackets, still less en- 
during armor, drew their arrows, and, holding their bows taut 
for the first shower of darts, sprang to the onslaught as if they, 
not less than their weapons, were winged. 

King Henry knew his foe. At the sight of their enemy attack- 
ing them, all caution, all recollection of the bitter experience of 
Cressy and Poitiers fied from the memory of the French. With a 
frenzied shout they sprang from their strong position, plunging 
madly on the English front through the rain-soaked field, which 
was like a morass. 

King Harry knew that the unwisdom of his foe had gone far 
to counterbalance his inferiority of numbers. 


128 


IN 'THE DAYS OF KING HAL, 


Halt ! cried his resonant voice. 

Halt ! ” echoed his leaders, and the English line stood fast, 
while each man planted the sharp palisades he carried, ready for 
what had happened. Entrenched behind this fortification, sprung 
like fungus out of the miry ground, the archers poured forth their 
deadly fire. The French advance wavered, stopped; man after 
man fell before the awful shower. But the French knights were 
as gallant as their opponents; rallying their men they led the 
charge upon the entrenched archers, and drove them finally from 
their palisades into the woods. 

What did it matter, trees or palisades, barricades planted by 
God or by man? From the woods the arrows still poured forth, 
now into the French rear, while a desperate conflict between the 
opposing men-at-arms was fighting in the front. 

All down the French line the English flung themselves like 
ravenous wolves. They knew no fear, they seemed impervious to 
pain; death itself could hardly be said to hold them. And every- 
where, wherever a blow was struck, in all parts of the line at once, 
rode King Henry, bravest where each man was a hero. 

Alain fought after him, never losing sight of the Welsh feathers 
in his helmet, for at Agincourt, as always, Henry the Fifth was 
Harry of Monmouth, the Welsh hero. Once Alain saw, with his 
heart clutched by the sight, the Duke d’Alengon cleave the crown 
from the king’s helmet. Again a mace, wielded by the hand of a 
great Korman, felled the king to the ground. But he was up 
again, and a shout rose from those nearest who had seen it, and 
Alain’s sword struck down the mace wielder and pinned him fast 
to earth. 

St. George! England! God for King Hal!” hoarsely 



“ ‘ Qod for King Hal! * hoarsely shouted the dry English throats,’^ 



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IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL, 


131 


shouted the ’dry English throats as the king, seizing the royal 
standard from its bearer, sprang on a horse and rushed forward. 

A mailed hand snatched the bridle, four hands tugged at the 
staff of the flag, axes, maces, spears menaced the king. 

England ! St. George ! ” shouted a voice, and Alain knew 
that its owner was breaking his way to the king^s side, followed 
by men madly fighting. Before the blows of the leader the French 
dropped like ripe currants, red, spattering the ground with red, as 
he had seen them in the Warwickshire orchards. 

Some one — the same leader — freed the terrified horse from his 
assailants. Some one seized by the throat a mail-clad demon who 
was raising his mace to crush the king. Some one followed the 
king, who dashed forward through the path cleared for him, fight- 
ing madly. Some one found himself at the hinge’s side in a lull — 
was it hours or moments after that frenzied sally? Some one 
heard the king receive the word that the field was won, the French 
reserve at that moment being routed, heard King Hal say, as he 
doffed his battered helmet : “ God hath won this battle for us 
against such fearful odds. To Him be praise and thanksgiving.^’ 
Then Alain awoke from the delirium of courage in which he 
had passed the last hour of the battle, and knew, knew because 
his king was thanking him, and his name was echoing on all 
sides in praise as the leader of that final onslaught to victory, 
that he was the some one w^ho had done these deeds, that he was 
at the side of the king in the moment of triumph at Agincpurt. 

The trumpets called to rest. Eleven thousand French lay in 
eternal rest on that awful field ; the dead and dying of both sides 
were massed upon each other. But as the glory of Agincourt 
alone is remembered of that battle, so the groans of the fallen 


132 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


were drowned in the psalms of triumph, the solemn Te Deum 
chanted above their mangled bodies. 

King Henry drew about him the remnant of the army with 
which he set forth from England in August. It was now Octo- 
ber; winter was fast approaching, and it would be impossible to 
carry on the campaign with the little enfeebled band of men left 
the English king. It was decided that the march to Calais should 
be continued, but to embark thence for home, there to recuperate 
and prepare the army for future victories on French soil. Alain’s 
work was undone; for him there could be no return to England 
until Isabel was found. 

Go your way, then, brave knight, to the rescue of the fair 
lady,” said the king, when Alain reminded him of this duty, and 
craved his permission for a parting which has become most un- 
desirable to the youth, then at the very age of hero-worshiping, 
and who saw in the conqueror of Agincourt the embodiment of 
his ideals. “ That I owe you my life once is certain ; that you 
saved it again on the field of Agincourt is probable, and that 
I love you well is be3^ond peradventure. Find your cousin, but 
make haste in the doing of it, and return to England and King 
Harr}^ who will be the friend of the Harringtons while he sees 
the sun.” 

Then I will set forth toward Eouen, Your Majesty, and with 
a heavy heart in leaving ^^our service. But I can never be wholly 
any man’s man, not even my king’s nor my own, till I have 
righted the wrong done by my father, of which so much is beyond 
reparation,” said Alain, kissing the royal hand. 

Farewell, my true heart. God prosper thee ! And tell Rouen 
she shall see me soon,” added the king, with a laugh. 


IN THE DAYS OF KINO HAL. 


133 


CHAPTER XI. 

THE ADVENTURES OF LADY ISABEL. 

When Isabel, obeying rather those who guided her steps than 

\ 

any interest in her own safety, continued her flight to France, her 
first halting place had been at the monastery whither Alain had 
gone to inquire for tidings of her. There the news of her father’s 
execution, not the less awful for being awaited, reached her; 
there, too, came to her the body of her murdered brother, the 
severing of the last link that bound her to life. After she had 
seen the child for whose sake only she had been able to summon 
fortitude to leave her father to meet death alone laid away in the 
peaceful cloister for his unending rest, with faithful J ude sleeping 
forever across his feet, the future appeared to her one unbroken 
blank of hopeless grief, her own fate a matter of supreme in- 
difference, since, homeless and bereft of all she loved, happiness 
could never be hers again. 

But Hugo and Dame Winifred thought otherwise; they, tak- 
ing advantage of the lethargy into which the poor girl had fallen, 
and that she was too indifferent to her future to oppose them, bore 
her toward Calais without loss of time, forcing her to the sole 
refuge left her on earth. 

The landing of the three fugitives in Calais preceded by but two 
days that of the English king at Havre; between them and the 
abbey beyond Rouen, whither Isabel was bound, lay two opposing 


134 


IN THE DAY8 OF KING HAL. 


armies and a country hostile to everything English. The problem 
of conveying her to her destination, young and fair as she was, 
slender as her supply of gold had become, and with only Dame 
Winifred to assist him, was one which cost Hugo many anxious 
hours to solve, and which, after all, was no nearer its solution 
than at first. Finally, after vain planning and hoping for means 
to ensure a speedy and safe passage from Calais to Kouen, Hugo 
resolved to trust to Providence, and set forth toward that city, for 
every day’s delay made dangerous inroads on their attenuated 
purse. 

Dame Winifred and her young mistress had obtained pal- 
freys, but Hugo made the journey afoot, saving the expense of a 
horse and his oats, yet rendering their progress much slower. 
It took several days to reach Arras, and they attained that town 
at nightfall of a day when a fair had been held, and the entire 
population was keeping festival. At the gates a band of roughs 
came up with the travelers and demanded that the two women 
should raise their veils, and prove whether or not they had claim 
to beauty. Hugo, alone against six, strove in vain to protect his 
mistress. Cudgels were wielded on both sides, and Hugo, finding 
himself unequal to his task, called upon Lady Isabel and Dame 
Winifred to ride to the nearest church or abbey, saying that he 
would find them when the hour was more propitious. Dame 
AVinifred, in affright, less for herself than for her nursling, seized 
Isabel’s bridle and dashed forward to obey. Shouts and songs 
arose on every side, and the frightened horses, pulling wildly 
apart, soon got free from hands quite unequal to managing two, 
and Isabel found herself alone in the crowd, separated from both 
her protectors. She rode toward the town, feeling more secure 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


135 


even among the terrors of the revels than alone on the outskirts of 
the crowd, but she was not suffered to proceed far. Three young, 
gallants caught her horse’s bridle, and two more rudely pulled 
her from the saddle and raised her veil. 

Her cries for help were not heeded, the temper of the crowd 
being to allow any sort of merry-making, probably assuming that 
those who objected to the^ order of the day would not be abroad. 
Isabel had begun to despair of rescue when eight big country 
bumpkins came up, arms locked in a solid wedge, and attacked her 
captors, whether for her sake, or merely for the sake of a fight, 
could not be certain. Nor did it much matter, since the im- 
mediate effect of their onslaught was to cause the first band of 
better-dressed, but worse-mannered, ruffians to unhand Isabel 
and defend themselves with their utmost vigor. 

There’s a shed yonder, around the corner, and down the next 
lane,” one of the newcomers took breath to say. ^‘^Kun to that, 
and hide in the straw, mademoiselle ; when we’re done with this 
gang we’ll come and conduct you to your friends.” 

Little inclined as Isabel was to trust this counsel, any refuge 
was better than none, and she set off at once in the direction indi- 
cated, leaving her uncouth knights to do battle for her. She 
found the shed, and crept into it, hiding under the clean straw, 
and waited with beating heart for the next- page of her story. 

It seemed long to her, but was actually but a short time, before 
the rescuing party appeared, leading her horse, triumph seated 
on their heated brows. 

We’ve made those beruffled knaves take to their heels, made- 
moiselle,” said one in rustic French. It will be a time before 
they will be pretty enough to molest a lady again.” 


136 


IN The days op kino hal. 


I hope you have not harmed them ? ” said Isabel, coming 
forth with a show of courage. 

Only a matter of a cracked head or so, some blackened 
eyes, smashed ribs, and mayhap a leg that likes cushions better 
than running,’’ replied the spokesman. Nothing near what they 
deserved for troubling a young lady. Would your grace tell us 
how we can serve you ? ” 

^‘'Thou speakest like a courtier, Jean,” whispered one of his 
companions loudly, nudging the speaker admiringly, while Isabel 
replied : “ I am an English lady, but lately orphaned, and beg- 
gared by the villainy of those who should have been kinder. I am 
on my way to an abbey beyond Rouen, where my aunt, from whom 
alone I can hope for assistance, is abbess. The good man and 
woman who were with me, the only friends I have left from happier 
days, are taking me thither. They were separated from me by 
ruffians who attacked us at the gate. Hugo — my man — fought 
them single-handed, bidding Winifred and me to ride to a church, 
where he would try to join us later. Then I fell upon the knaves 
whom you so opportunely routed, my woman was separated from 
me, and now I am alone. If you can hide me safely, and find my 
good Dame Winifred and Hugo, and bring them to me. Heaven 
will bless and thank you fittingly, as I never can.” 

An instinct told Isabel that her only hope lay in simple trust 
in these country 3^ouths, and the instinct did not mislead her. 
Wiping his eyes on the sleeve of his jacket, the one called Jean 
said : “ A most affecting tale, and one that would move a stone 
when told by so beautiful a lady. My lady, if you will trust me, 
I hope I can serve you. My sister is ill. She and her three weeks’ 
babe have a low fever, and the old woman nursing her is not able 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


137 


to check it. I know that the nobles sometimes have knowledge of 
herbs. If you will come to my sister, I will tell her only your 
story; the neighbors shall think you other than you are, and 
that you are a wise woman. You shall stay in the cottage till I 
can find your escorts, and, if it is a year hence, you will be safe in 
the hands of my sivster and her husband, who is a wood-carver by 
trade, and a harmless man.” 

How can I thank )^ou ? ” cried Isabel, with genuine gratitude 
and relief. I will gladly go wilh you, and T am thankful that I 
may also be useful to you. Though I am young I am somewhat 
learned in simples, for my mother has been dead for years, and 
Dame Winifred hath taught me the use of herbs that I might take 
my mother’s place in ministering to the poor, as becomes the 
chatelaine of a castle where there are many tenants.” 

The rustic bowed low. I knew you were a lady of noble 
birth,” he said. If you will deign to honor my sister’s roof it 
will be our part to be grateful. And now, my lady, may I venture 
to ask a favor? The streets are full of roysterers, some wicked, 
some only mischievous, but all in a mood to be troublesome to a 
young and fair lady if she is seen by them. Will you put on some 
few pieces of clumsy armor I have here, and wear it as we go to 
my sister’s house? It will protect you by making you pass un- 
noticed, and there is great wisdom in caution, though there are six 
of us.” 

^^Jean speaks like a priest,” cried one of the other youths. 

Better do it, my lady ; it might go hard with you if you were 
seen.” 

Give me the armor,” said Isabel. I can not do less than 
obey those who are risking their safety for me, and I will not leave 


138 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


undone anything that might save them from being embroiled in 
another encounter for my sake/^ 

to that, my lady,^^ said Jean, with great earnestness, 
“ never trouble yourself, for we are grateful for a good fight, and 
we have had a beautiful one, and would thank the saints for let- 
ting us have another honestly; it is for your sake only we would 
have you conceal yourself under this rusty harness/^ So saying, 
he produced parts of a suit of mail, rusty, indeed, and clumsy, 
but which had been worn by a slender youth evidently, for, as 
Isabel fitted it to her delicate, lithe frame, it was not so large 
but that she could contrive to keep within it. Only the upper 
part of her body was to be thus disguised; Jean decided that the 
darkness, which was fast deepening, would conceal her skirts if she 
rode with her little feet thrust in the iron boots, and drew her 
palfrey’s trappings somewhat over her knees. 

Fully equipped at last, the little party sallied forth and ar- 
rived without adventure at the tiny cottage which Jean indicated 
as the home of the wood-carver, who was his brother-in-law. The 
kind youth led Isabel into the little house, told in a few words 
the story of her misfortunes and his finding her, and, leaving her 
with promises of return on the morrow, went away to find Hugo 
and Dame Winifred, if they were still in Arras. 

A fire on the hearth was the only light in the narrow stone 
room in which Isabel found herself. The master of the house was 
away, engaged at his trade in a neighboring monastery, and its 
mistress, a girl not more than two years the senior of Isabel her- 
self, lay on the high bed built in the wall at one end of the room, 
a young baby at her side, very ill, as her guest could see at a 
glance. Her attendant was also absent, and when Jean had closed 



Isabel fitted it to her delicate^ lithe frame/^ 








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IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


141 


the door behind him Isabel went np to the bed, her own situation 
forgotten in her anxiety to relieve Anne, for thus Jean had called 
his sister. 

The little baby was whimpering softly; Isabel’s first task was 
to warm milk, which she found in the cupboard, feed the little 
creature, and lay it to sleep on a settle at a distance from its suf- 
fering mother. Then she set open the door, admitting the sweet 
summer air, prepared a cooling draft for her patient, bathed her 
hands and face with fresh water from the well, and had the satis- 
faction of seeing Anne drop into quiet slumber, an example her 
young nurse was too anxious to follow. 

The next day there was still no tidings of Hugo and Dame 
Winifred. Isabel tried to content herself with her nursing, and 
trust Heaven to bring back to her the sole friends she could count 
upon on earth. It was not easy, yet there was need enough of 
some one who had even rudimentary knowledge of illness in the 
jittle home to which she had been so singularly led. She was fully 
occupied. With all her heart Isabel blessed the good woman who 
had taught her to be useful to the poor. Her science was not 
great, but with it she managed to concoct remedies from the herbs 
at hand, to treat the fever with untiring watchfulness, and To 
relieve the discomfort imposed on Anne by the ignorance of her 
well-meaning old nurse, till the rapid pulse abated under the re- 
laxation of nerves her ministrations wrought. The baby, too, 
grew happier, and less pale in Isabel’s loving hands, and in return 
made these bitter days bearable to the poor girl, for Isabel was a 
true woman, and found the touch of baby hands most healing to 
her aching heart. 

The good peasants, to whom the beautiful young lady seemed 


142 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


like a sort of miracle wrought by Heaven for their benefit, was so 
grateful for the good she did them that they could not be made to 
see how much Isabel owed to their intervention in her behalf, and 
when the young mother, her fever quite left her, was able to sit up, 
pillowed in her somber bed, there was a little festival held by the 
happy family, over which Isabel presided as the good angel to 
whom this restoration was due. 

Among themselves they talked softly, ashamed of their own 
selfishness, of the happiness it would be if Hugo and Dame Wini- 
fred were never found, and the Lady Isabel could remain always 
the guardian of their welfare. 

While Isabel had been thus strangely employed, Hugo and 
Dame Winifred, who had discovered each other shortly after Isa- 
bel had disappeared, had searched vainly through the length and 
breadth of the town for their charge. Just as they were giving 
up hope, and deciding that she was dead or spirited away by vil- 
lains to the worst fate of all of her unhappy race, Jean stumbled 
upon them as he was leaving a little old church in an unfre- 
quented quarter of the town; he had been ceaselessly following 
the only clew he had to a meeting with them, and had haunted the 
churches and abbeys for miles around, since Hugo had bidden 
his mistress in parting, go to such an asylum to await him. Jean 
felt certain the moment his eyes fell upon the strangers that 
they were those he sought. A word was sufficient to assure him of 
it, and, with mingled joy and regret, he led them to his sister’s 
dwelling. 

Isabel, seated by the bed, telling her patient tales of life in 
the land across the channel, so near, yet so different in language, 
customs, and race, heard Hugo’s step on the stone outside the 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


143 


door, and started to her feet. The cry she uttered when Hugo 
and her dear old nurse burst into the room waked the baby to 
frightened wailing, but Isabel for once was deaf to the cries of 
her little pet. She was a baby herself, sobbing with joy on her 
kind old nurse’s shoulder, clinging to the hand of the faithful 
big man who, when she was scarce more than a baby, had ridden 



‘‘Isabel, seated by the bed, heard Hugo’s step on the stone outside the 
door, and started to her feet. The cry she utterxd when 
Hugo and her dear old nurse burst into the room waked 
the baby to frightened wailing.” 


her on his arm around the moat of her beloved Harrington, which 
she should never see again. 

With tears on both sides, and thanks no less sincere from 
Isabel to the good people who had rescued her, than were theirs 
to the gracious and beautiful lady to whose care they were con- 
vinced Anne owed her life, Isabel parted from the humble friends 


144 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


Providence had mercifully brought to her in her hour of need. 
She could not tear herself from Anne’s clinging arms till she had 
promised to return to Arras if happier days ever dawned for her, 
and Jean could not let the beautiful vision he worshiped from 
afar fade from his eyes till the last moment ; he rode with Hugo, 
Dame Winifred, and Isabel far on the road toward Amiens, 
whither they were bound first on their way to Kouen, and left 
when the sun was high with a heavy heart, riding back with hang- 
ing head and slackened rein, and it may be that it was because 
the September sunshine was so bright that his eyes were too 
dimmed to see the road stretching before him back of Arras. 

Isabel and her insufficient escort reached Amiens without fur- 
ther adventure. They took refuge in an inn. Dame Winifred and 
the young girl keeping entirely to their apartment, while 
Hugo found congenial companionship in the common room below 
stairs. 

Among the men gathered about the fire was one, a servant, but 
evidently a higher servant of some noble. He seemed curious as 
to Hugo’s business, but after vainly trying to discover its nature, 
he abandoned such attempts, and throwing off a surliness of man- 
ner which at first distinguished him from those around him, 
joined merrily in the songs and toasts which the hostess’ good 
red wine called forth. 

But as Hugo took his candle, and started with it unlighted 
down the narrow passage toward bed, he came suddenly upon this 
same servant in company with another man whose face and con- 
dition he could not make out. As he approached he heard the 
servant say : I’ll wager my head she’s worth the risk, and is 
high-born and beautiful. I saw her dismount, and her air was 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


145 


regal. My lord will have all the opportunity he wishes, for they 
start in the morning south — ” 

The other, who was facing Hugo, moved, probably to nudge 
his companion into silence. Then he said, more loudly than the 
other had spoken : I tell you, man, I don’t want another horse, 
nor can your allusions to her noble descent move me. Besides, I 
am going north, so it will be impossible for me to go look at her.” 

Both made way for Hugo to pass; he saw the face of the sec- 
ond speaker then, young, handsome, but sinister, and wicked. He 
continued his way down the narrow passage with foreboding heart. 
Why had these men tried to conceal the subject of their conversa- 
tion from him? Tried, too, so ineffectually, for evidently the 
servant spoke of a human creature, not a horse; horses are dis- 
mounted from, but never dismount, and that with regal air. 

Wickedness, probably, but it does not follow it concerns me,” 
said Hugo at last, rising from the bed where he had sat consid- 
ering. There may be many things such a pair as that want no 
one to know. I will not anticipate evil, since it comes to us fast 
enough of late.” 

In the morning Isabel’s journey was resumed. They rode till 
late in the day, meeting with no adventure. Then they entered a 
piece of woods through which Hugo urged their horses to greater 
speed. 

As they rode abreast of a specially dark clump of trees a voice 
called from their depths commanding them to halt, and an arrow 
whizzed past Isabel’s horse’s ear to enforce the demand. As they 
reined up four men dashed out of the thicket, two of whom at once 
engaged with Hugo, while each of the others seized one of the horses 
ridden by the two women. Hugo fought desperately, but in vain. 


146 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


A blow on his bare head, from which the helmet had been torn in 
the struggle, ended his power of resistance ; he fell senseless to the 
ground, and the attacking party wasted no more time upon him. 

One of the villains darted into the thicket whence they had 
emerged, and brought out four horses, while the other three bound 
Isabel and Dame Winifred to their palfreys, their arms made 
powerless at their sides. Then, mounting their own fresh animals, 
two of the party took each a bridle of the horses bearing their 
prisoners, the third led Hugo’s horse. They rode rapidly away, 
heeding Isabel’s cries and prayers and Dame Winifred’s no more 
than the chirping of the autumn insects in the wood, and leaving 
Hugo, alive or dead, no one knew or cared which, on the moss 
where he had fallen. But if he could have opened his sealed eyes 
he would have seen, as the wretches threw back their masks, and 
drew their reins taut, that one bore the face of the servant, and 
another the diabolically handsome countenance of the master 
with whom he had been conspiring v/hen he had passed them in the 
narrow passage the night before. 

But Hugo’s eyes were closed beneath white lids, and his be- 
loved young mistress dashed through the forest in the hands of 
her captors, and disappeared over the brow of the hill. 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


147 


CHAPTER XII. 

A DARRINGTON TO THE RESCUE. 

King Henry the Fifth had returned to England for those 
two years of preparation which preceded his second campaign in 
France and the capture of Rouen. x\nd Alain Barrington had 
regretfully parted from his royal master to pursue his way to 
that city, where he hoped to discover Isabel. Turning southward 
from Calais he came to Arras just as, unknown to him, the object 
of his search had done three months earlier. 

He rode alone, save for Roger, his squire — like a true knight- 
errant, his lady’s embroidered sleeve still quilted through his 
helmet. 

Thus he came to Arras, and thus he appeared to a rustic of 
whom he stopped to inquire the way. Your horses are weary, 
sir,” said the young man. See how their heads droop ; they 
are longing for a fresh draft of water. If you will follow me to 
yonder little cottage my sister will gladly give you and them re- 
freshment, for it is half an hour more to the nearest inn, and as 
it is a holiday there might not be place for you when you arrived 
there.” 

Thank you, friend ; it is a kind offer and one I will gladly 
accept,” returned Alain. How are you called that I may know 
the proper manner of addressing my host ? ” 

Jean, my lord, but I am not your host. My sister Anne is 


148 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


married to a wood-carver, and it is his house to which I am lead- 
ing you,” returned Jean. 

Ah ! And I am Alain Barrington of — But what’s the mat- 
ter?” cried Alain, for his guide had stopped short, and was 
staring at him in open-mouthed amazement. 

“ Barrington ! Are you kin to Lady Isabel of that name ? ” 
cried Jean. ^ 

It was Alain’s turn to stare. Miracles and wonders ! ” he 
gasped at last. What can you, a French peasant of Arras, know 
of my cousin ? ” 

Your cousin ! Then you are one of that dastard brood who 
have robbed her ! ” cried Jean, in increasing excitement. I know 
all, because Hugo hath told me. And I know that I saved her 
from the hands of villains here, and brought her to this very house 
where you are now going, and that she abode here, and nursed my 
sister, and saved her life, like the angel she is, and if you were not 
my guest I w^ould strike you dead for the wrong you have done 
her.” 

Softly, softly, good J ean,” said Alain, not much less dis- 
turbed than the faithful fellow to whom he was speaking. " Let 
us go more slowly and be more just. When you hear why I am in 
France you will be less wroth with me ; in a word, my sole errand 
is to discover the Lady Isabel and restore to her her rights, of 
which neither I nor my brother deprived her. God Himself,” he 
added, taking ofP the plumed cap he wore, while his helmet hung 
at his saddle, must have led me to you, that you may help me in 
my search.” 

Both young men reached the wood-carver’s house in a state of 
joyful disturbance, for when Jean learned that it was not the 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


149. 


foe, but a true friend of his lady with whom he had to deal, he 
whiffled over to the most enthusiastic admiration for him, and 
by the time Anne and her baby made them welcome at the door 
Jean was ready to leave all other interests and accompany Alain 
to the ends of earth in his chivalrous (][uest. The wood-carver, 
arriving later, had to hear the wonderful story over again ; indeed. 



“ Instantly the battlements were swarming with activity ; men-at-arms ran 
hither and yon, ainned, too, as could be seen plainly from below, 
till at last some one in authority, apparently, stood forth 
upon a buttress and demanded their business.” 

the three peasants and their guests passed the night in hearing 
and telling the history of the remarkable events of the past 
months, although Alain did not find it necessary to explain fully 
the wrong committed by his father. When, toward morning, 
Alain lay down to sleep, it had been arranged that Jean was to 
accompany him to Eouen, supplementing his knowledge of the 
country and language, and serving him in every way in his power, 


.150 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


for his own sake as well as that of his cousin, for Jean had con- 
ceived unbounded alfection for the young man who could sacrifice 
so much for honor. 

There was no dallying on the journey, nor delay in setting 
forth. Alain, with Eoger and Jean, made good speed along the 
pleasant roads, and halted at a castle outside Amiens in fewer days 
than it had taken Isabel and her convoy to make the same distance 
some weeks earlier. The castle at which they stopped stood beyond 
the city to the westward, set back among thick weeds, a frowning 
hill enforcing it at the rear. Night was coming on, and the trav- 
elers^ horses were too weary to cover the rest of the distance be- 
tween this point and an inn, else had they passed at a respectful 
distance the gloomy pile which appeared so menacing. 

Making the best of a necessity, however, they rode up to within 
hail of its walls, and called upon the warder to open to three fore- 
spent men who craved a night’s hospitality on their journey. In- 
stantly the battlements were swarming with activity ; men-at-arms 
ran hither and yon, armed, too, as could be seen plainly from 
below, till at last some one in authority, apparently, stood forth 
upon a buttress and demanded their business. 

" Nothing more than has been already said,” returned Eoger, 
spokesman through having the mightiest voice. We are travelers 
to Eouen, on private business, and our horses are too weary to bear 
us into Amiens. We ask your hospitality, as we would gladly ac- 
cord you ours were the case reversed.” 

Some moments passed, probably spent in consultation, before 
a small gate was opened and the travelers were bidden enter. As 
it closed behind them, and the bolt flew back into its place, Alain 
had somewhat the sensation of a hare whose confidence in entering 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


151 


the trap deserts him at the thought of quitting it. There was 
nothing to be done but to bear themselves bravely and unsuspici- 
ously, having entered, and Alain, setting the example, flung him- 
self from his tired beast with what he hoped was an air of cheerful 
alacrity. 

The master of this castle is not here,’’ said a man, coming 
forward to meet them, with most ungracious mien. He is not 
far distant, but until he comes I, who am called Jacques Nicolas, 
represent him, and bid you welcome, if your errand is as innocent 
as you say ; if not, so much the worse for you.” 

“ Is it customary in France, the land of courtesy, to welcome 
guests with a thinly veiled threat ? ” asked Alain, pleasantly. 

Our errand is not other than we say, my friend, and if you will 
suffer us and our horses to rest the night we will go away as 
peaceably as we came, thanking you heartily for your hospitality. 
If it would not offend you to speak of recompense, I would say 
that we will gladly requite you for our supper, both for man and 
beasts.” 

Jacques frowned. This is not an inn,” he said, shortly. 

What we give, we give. You are welcome to a night’s rest here, 
if that is all you want, and Castel Malheureux is not so poor as 
to require payment for what it dispenses.” 

Thanks, friend ; I felt certain you would reply thus,” said 
Alain, determined to seem pleased. Castel Malheureux ! What 
a singular name ! ” 

It pleases us,” returned J acques. It fits those who assail, 
it; unlucky is he of a certainty who attempts to force it. It has 
not won its name from the condition of those who abide in it.” 

But those who visit it ! ” thought Alain, finishing the implied 


152 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


latter half of his host’s sentence. Well, we shall see, and trust 
to escaping the import.’’ 

It was not a very propitious beginning, nor precisely an ap- 
petizing sauce to the supper set before the travelers, but they con- 
trived to make a good meal, and the viands were of the best. The 
inmates of the castle, showing no desire for further acquaintance 
with the strangers, assigned to them a corner of the main hall, 
where the fire burned brightly on the hearth as it had done at 
Barrington, and they spread rugs and skins abundantly for their 
guests to sleep on. Then they withdrew to the opposite side of 
the great space and made no advances toward sociability. 

There was an atmosphere of danger all about ; something dark 
and sinister seemed to brood over the entire pile. The three 
strangers agreed to take turns in watching and sleeping, for they 
felt that slumber of all at once might menace their waking in 
the morning. A narrow window, high up above their heads, let 
in the fresh night air, helping them to wakefulness, for the air 
of the hall was heavily impure with unpleasant odors and artificial 
heat. 

It was Eoger’s turn at watching, and might have been some- 
thing more than an hour past midnight. Alain and Jean slept. 
Suddenly there rang out on the night air a woman’s scream, so 
piercing, so agonized, that Alain and Jean sprang to their feet 
with one impulse, and saw that Roger, holding his shield high in 
his left hand, was fighting desperately with his right against a 
band of armed men, the number of whom Alain could not stop to 
conjecture. And above the clash of steel arose again that an- 
guished woman’s cry, calling upon God to save her. 

My armor ! ” cried Alain. He had imprudently laid off the 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


153 


upper portion when he had lain down, and as Jean buckled it 
around him he cried : Courage, Koger ; I am coming ! ” Alain 
armed, Jean snatched up his sword, and together the two youths 
sprang to the conflict, laying about them with such hearty good- 
will that for a moment it seemed as though they might force their 
way through the tremendous superiority of numbers by sheer 
strength of nerve and courage. But the odds were far too heavy 
against them to make such an outcome possible, and it had gone 
hard with the three strangers had not a shout arisen from outside 
and a trumpet been blown. Its effect was magical; in an instant 
all the spears and swords dropped, the leader of the force within 
the castle called a halt, and every man leaned forward in a listen- 
ing attitude, hand to ear, body resting on one foot. Once more 
the trumpet sounded, then a voice, shrill, high, excited, the voice 
of a child, arose under the window above the spot where Alain and 
his followers had lain. 

Come forth ! come forth ! shouted the voice. Your lord 
is slain ; my brother is dead ! I am lord over you ! Come forth, I 
say ! 

Dead ! echoed many voices, in tones of wonder, rage, but 
not sorrow. Then with a sudden, unanimous impulse every man 
in the hall turned and rushed to the door, and clattered down the 
stone stairway, forgetting their ihree opponents, who followed 
them without hesitation. On the grass below the walls stood the 
boy whose voice had reached them, a child of twelve or thirteen 
years, his face purple with excitement, holding a sword aloft in 
his brown hand. But though he had just announced his brother’s 
death in his piping treble, there was no sorrow in his face either; 
mad excitement was there, an expression of something horribly 


154 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


like triumph and joy shone in his dilated eyes, and on his young 
countenance, that yet seemed old and hardened. 

I am your lord ! ” he cried, the instant the men had all as- 
sembled. ^^You have solemnly sworn to acknowledge me if my 
brother were to die; keep your vow.” 

^^You are our lord, young Eaoul, but during your minority 
you will have a regent over your kingdom, and I will be that 
regent,” said Jacques. This is no time to discuss your claims, 
boy. How did your brother die, and when ? ” 

He died by the hand of the woman who is imprisoned with 
the young English lady in the chateau on the hill,” replied the 
boy. All this long time he has tried to coax that beautiful lady 
to receive him, and he has taken me with him. She shrank from 
him in terror, and he always gave w’ay to her will, takihg his leave 
respectfully, but promising to come again, and yet again, until 
she should look upon his suit with favor. And each time she has 
told him that she should never listen to him, but should always 
abhor the villain who carried her off by force, slew her faithful 
man, and kept her prisoner. And as she has spoken I have listened 
and have known she was right, and that my brother was the 
villain she called him, and I have hated him. And to-night, to- 
night, when he went alone to her prison, leaving me behind, I 
knew there was wrong to her afoot, and I followed him. And 
v/hen he tried to force his way to that beautiful English girl I 
knew that he would drive her to her death, for I had visited her 
alone, and offered to help her, and she had blessed me, telling me 
she had had a brother near my age who had been cruelly murdered, 
and for his sake, and my goodness to her, she loved me. But she 
said I was not to fear for her, for if all other friends were taken 



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IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


157 


from her, one was left, and she showed me the window, and I knew 
she would leap to death if need be. So to-night, when the wretch 
whom I disown went to persecute her, and there was none to be- 
friend her. Dame Winifred, glorious Dame Winifred, slew him with 
the knife she carried in her bosom, and Lady Isabel was saved.’’ 

Alain had never seen such passionate triumph as this strange 
boy showed, but all thought of it was swallowed up in amazement, 
wonder, at the names he heard. Isabel ! Winifred ! What could 
it mean? Was it possible that Providence had sent him to his 
cousin in her dire necessity, that it was she who had been taken 
prisoner by a villain who had paid duly the price of his crimes? 

He sprang to the fore, and grasped the boy’s arm, who looked 
at him, marveling, for he had not heard of the stranger’s ar- 
rival. ^^Boy, who is this lady of whom you speak? Have you 
heard her name ? ” he cried. 

The boy measured him with an eye that had early learned 
estimating men. Apparently he decided favorably to the young 
stranger; perhaps his English tongue made Raoul hope he would 
prove kind to the prisoner in the chateau. She is the Lady Isa- 
bel Darrington,” he said. 

Gracious heaven ! My cousin, and in such a plight ! ” cried 
Alain. ^^My boy, I have come from England solely to find this 
sweet, unfortunate girl, but I thought to discover her safe in an 
abbey near Rouen ; I never dreamed she was in such danger. Take 
me to her, I beg 3^ou, and use your new authority to set her free 
and save her from the hands of these men.” 

These men, as the stranger calls us, have some claim on you, 
young Raoul,” said Jacques. "" If you have no natural desire to 
avenge your brother, I at least will see to it that the woman who 


158 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


slew him has her deserts. I demand that she be given up 
to us at once to be dealt with. As to the girl, she shall be ran- 
somed, if she be the noble dame she claims to be. But this 
stranger, how can we know him for her cousin? You will dismiss 
him to the dungeon to wait our verdict. 

For reply Eaoul turned to the men-at-arms. How many are 
true men? he cried. How many have had enough of Jacques’ 
cruelty, crimes, arrogance ? How many will keep their oaths and 
obey me ? ” 

1 ! and I ! and I ! ’’ cried many voices. The boy flushed 
proudly. “ I thought I could not be the only true heart in this 
accursed place, truly the Castel Malheureux. Obey my first com- 
mand, then: seize Jacques!” So many hands were stretched to 
execute the command, without one to resist it, that it was evident 
hatred for Jacques was a prevailing sentiment. 

Now to the dungeon with him, and shackle him well.” The 
men bore away the former lieutenant of the dead master of the 
castle, and the boy watched him disappear with infinite satisfac- 
tion written on his face. 

“ My lord,” said Eaoul, whose ability to lead was so far in ex- 
cess of his years that it could be accounted for but by his early 
schooling in a hard life. “ If you are the Lady Isabel’s cousin, 
as you claim to be, I am thankful you have come, but I must not 
wrong her by admittting to her a stranger. Dame Winifred will 
know you, if you speak the truth ; come to that brave woman, who 
has, like a. heroine, saved her mistress at the price of her own 
peace.” 

^^Unfortunately,” said Alain, sadly, neither my cousin 
nor her old nurse has ever seen me. We have grown up apart 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


159 


from each other, and I beg yon not to doubt me if I have difficulty 
in establishing my identity. I feel certain that after a time I can 
convince Dame Winifred that I am myself.” 

She will surely know me for her friend,” said Jean, step- 
ping forward. Take me to her if you doubt us, for the good 
angels not long since enabled me to do her a service who is little 
less than an angel herself.” 

How about the token in your helmet which wise Lady Mar- 
garet, your mother, placed there, Master Alain ? ” asked Roger. 
“ Surely Dame Winifred will recognize the bit of velvet sleeve 
which belike she embroidered for her little lady with her own 
hands.” 

True, true, Roger ; the embroidered sleeve ! ” cried Alain, 
rapturously. It had entirely escaped my memory. Lead 
us to the brave Dame Winifred, good, faithful master Raoul, both 
Jean and myself. And hasten, for my poor cousin hath sorrowed 
long and bitterly; it is time Heaven sent her comfort, and none 
but Heaven itself led us to this gloomy castle on this eventful 
night.” 

Follow me ! ” said Raoul, briefly, and led the way up the hill 
at the rear of the castle. 


160 


IN THE DAY8 OF KING HAL. 


CHAPTER XTII. 


BARRINGTON OF BARRINGTON ONCE MORE. 

Raoul led Alain and his two companions np the hill in per- 
fect silence. The woods w^ere thick^ and it seemed to them they 
had gone a long distance, owing to the windings of the path when 
they had actually climbed but a few tens of feet. They had not 
nearly attained the summit of the steep ascent when Raoul made 
a sharp turn to the right, and brought them suddenly into a clear- 
ing from which they looked almost straight across to the castle, 
the trees which had once intercepted the view having been cut 
away. 

On this clearing, serving as a lawn and pleasure ground, stood 
a tiny chateau, or, more correctly, chalet ; Alain instantly recog- 
nized it as his cousin’s prison, and understood, as he looked across 
at the castle, what had puzzled him before, how the woman’s 
scream could be so plainly heard in the great hall. 

This w^ay,” said Raoul, briefly, and led them farther toward 
the front of the chateau. There in the grass, darkened by his 
blood, lay a man as he had fallen, the head thrown back, the right 
hand clutching a poignard, the left extended, its fingers dug into 
the grass in the convulsion of death ; the face, though there was no 
one there to recognize it in that connection, was that of the man 
whom Hugo had discovered plotting with his servant in the dark 
passage in the inn on the night before Isabel’s capture. 


IN THE DAYS OF HING HAJj. 


161 


Eaoul walked up to the body, drew his short dagger, and 
pointed to the prostrate figure with a passionate motion of both 
arms. 

There he lies, dead ; slain, and richly deserving his fate ! 
he cried. Must I mourn for him because he was my brother ? I 

hated his crimes: I hated to feel that we were sons of the same 

^ • 

father ; thank Heaven, my dear mother was not his mother. I 
would have been willing to die to have saved the poor girl he had 
in his power from a marriage to him; you do not blame me that I 
rejoice that the brave woman with her knew how to use her dag- 
ger as true as a man, and delivered her mistress? You have no 
conception of the crimes committed in yonder Castle of Mis- 
fortune, and by him, and how I had to see them, helpless, from 
my babyhood.^^ 

Alain laid his hand gently on the lad’s shoulder. My brave 
and good Raoul,” he said, there is no real kinship between such 
as you, and such as he hath been. But he is dead; dead in the 
midst of sin, with no moment in which to make his peace with 
God. Let us try to forget his crimes, or remember them but to 
repair them. It will be the work of your life to undo his, and 
turn yonder Castel Malheureux into Castel Bienfaisance.” 

^^You have named it; it shall be worthy that name, if God 
gives me life and strength to compass it,” cried Raoul. ^^And 
now let me take you to your cousin.” 

To Dame Winifred first, so please you ; I should not like to 
startle poor Lady Isabel, who has slender reason of late to antici- 
pate good in seeing the advent of strangers.” 

It was difficult to find Dame Winifred. Raoul led the way into 
the house, but every room through which they passed was deserted, 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


iBa 


and they were beginning to feel alarm, and to wonder if the two 
women had been rash enough to take flight alone rather than stay 
to face the consequences of Dame Winifred's act, when just as 
they were quitting one of the silent chambers, a glad cry rang 
out, and Dame Winifred rushed forth from behind a panel which 
suddenly slid back in the wall, and seized Jean in her arms, cry- 
ing: Jean! Jean! for the love of Heaven tell me how came you 
here, and who are these in your company ? 

The good boy sobbed aloud in excitement not less than hers. 
‘‘ We came here on our way to Eouen to find Lady Isabel,^^ he re- 
plied. God led us to this place to-night when you needed us 
most. This young gentleman with me is Sir Alain Darrington, 
the Lady Isabel's cousin, who has been four months out of Eng- 
land looking for her, to bring her to her own again.” 

Dame Winifred looked at Alain with amazement, but with a 
distrust which may be pardoned her in view of all that had hap- 
pened. 

Sir Gaspar’s son ? ” she exclaimed. Do you expect me to 
believe that one of that brood, who hath robbed my darling, mur- 
dered my lord and that blessed boy, and brought sorrow upon us 
which nothing can wipe out, has come to Franc 3 for any good to 
Lady Isabel? No; let me get my child away from here, for these 
are but new enemies, and we can bear no more.” 

^^Dame Winifred,” said Alain, gently, I do not blame you 
that you find it hard to trust me, but only listen. My father is 
dead, slain in combat with a true friend of Lord Darrington, who 
rode to Darrington to avenge him. My brother and I, our mother, 
too, who is a saint, and has taught us to deal justly with all men 
as we hope for mercy, were entirely ignorant of the wrong done 



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IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


165 


by my father, and powerless to help it, until he was dead. Then 
we said we would rather starve than keep estates and titles won 
thus. My brother stayed at Barrington to administer affairs till 
my cousin could be brought back, and I hastened to London to 
ask the king to reinstate him. I was too late; Lord Barrington 
was dead, the king had sailed for France. I followed him, fought 
under him at Agincourt, and then obtained permission to leave 
him and bring back Lady Isabel to her own again. Providence 
brought me to Jean, who could tell me something of your move- 
ments. If you can doubt that our arrival at this den of iniquity 
last night was wrought by the hand of Providence, then you are 
hard to convince. For myself, I thank Heaven that a sign has 
been given me that my efforts are blessed, and God will not hold 
us guilty of our father’s wrong.” He bared his head reverently 
as he spoke, and Banie Winifred’s eyes fell on the blue velvet em- 
broidered with pearls quilted through the bars of his helmet. 

What is that ? ” she cried, sharply, pointing to it. 

Lady Isabel’s sleeve, which my mother brought me from her 
chamber at Barrington, and placed here, that when I found my 
cousin she would know it was I, and that a mother’s love waited 
her at home in the heart of my mother, who hath given her young- 
est son to search for her, and bring her baek with him,” said 
Alain, lifting the helmet for Bame Winifred to see his token 
plainly. 

The good woman began to tremble, and to weep softly as she 
fondled the bit of blue. I wrought that sleeve for my darling 
myself to wear on her blessed mother’s feast day,” she said. “ You 
could not have thought of this yourself; I believe it was your 
mother who placed that there, and I must trust her love and good- 


166 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


ness who will, as 3'ou say, risk her son, and so young a son, that 
right may be brought out of wrong. Follow me to your cousin, or 
stay! Let Jean come with me first alone, for my darling is so 
worn and frightened that I dare not risk letting her see a strange 
face first. Since we came here each man who has come near her 
has approached her but with new cruelty.^^ 

Dame Winifred, drying her eyes, led the way toward the door, 
and Jean followed proudly. To the surprise of all she went out 
of the house and turned up the hill ; when she had preceded them 
to a little distance, Eaoul led Alain and Eoger after her, and 
waited in the shadow of the trees to be summoned. 

In less time than they looked for her return. Dame Winifred 
reappeared, and bade them follow her to her mistress. Alain went 
with beating heart ; he could not face the young girl whose father 
had died through his own father’s crime, without dreading the 
interview. Dame Winifred conducted them silently to a little 
group of trees, beneath the boughs of which she stooped, and 
brought them into a sort of tiny grove. Here they saw Jean 
standing, and kneeling in the farthest corner a slender, drooping 
figure in long draperies which concealed her face. 

Here is your cousin. Sweeting,” said Dame Winifred, gently, 
and raised her up in her strong arms. 

A great pity for the fragile creature who had been made 
to bear so much, drove out of Alains mind all thought of 
himself, and gave him the instinct to do and say the right 
thing. Going softly over to the girl, clinging timidly to her 
old nurse, he took both her little cold hands and raised them to 
his lips. I have come to take you home to Darrington, dear 
Isabel,” he said, simply. Mother loves you very much, and is 


IN THE DAY8 OF KING HAL. 


167 


waiting for yon; all her daughters are dead. We can not get 
on without you, and you must come Avith me to comfort her, for 
you know it is harder for us to feel our father did the wrong than 
for you to know yours suffered by it.’’ 

If he had known Isabel from her cradle he could not have 
more surely struck the right chord. In all her young life she had 



^ ^ and turned up the htlV’ 


never thought first of herself, nor failed to give affection and sym- 
pathy to those she believed needed it. 

As Alain spoke of his mother, the mother of only dead girls, 
her heart went out to the woman bereft — bereft, too, in her widow- 
hood of respect for the dead husband; her own motherless con- 
dition made her love leap out to her who claimed it as a mother. 


168 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


I can not thank you, Alain,” she said, if Alain you are, for I 
am not certain even of my cousin’s name, but I will go with you 
back to the home I never thought to see again, and I will try to be 
the daughter and sister to your house, which it lacks.” 

My mother quilted this, your little sleeve, into my helmet, 
Isabel, and when she put it there she bade me wear my lady's 
colors like a true knight until I had rescued her. And when I 
found you she bade me show it to you, for then you would know 
that she loved you indeed; a proof that does not seem convincing 
to me, yet I know well that she does love you,” added honest Alain. 

But Isabel stroked the little pearl-sewn sleeve fondly. It is 
proof, cousin Alain,” she said. When I see her I will tell her 
how sweet was the message of womanly thoughtfulness and ten- 
derness the little sleeve brought me in a strange land.” 

And now, when shall we start for England ? ” asked Alain. 

I never thought her fogs would seem so fair and desirable.” 

‘^At once, in the morning!” cried Isabel, springing up with 
new life. 

Will you not linger one day, just to let me prove to you that 
Castel Malheureux is not the abode of cruelty only ? ” asked 
Eaoul, wistfully. ' 

Dear Eaoul, we know that now,” said Isabel, touching the 
boy’s shoulder fondly. Do you think I can ever forget that you 
were my friend when I needed one so sorely, and were ready to 
sacrifice anything for me ? But Dame Winifred is haunted with the 
thought of the death she hath wrought, and though she is thank- 
ful that she has delivered me, like another Judith, still she can 
not breathe in this atmosphere, for she is not a warrior by trade, 
and even a just death lies on her heavily when done by her hand. 


IN THE DAYS OP KING HAL. 


169 


So let us go, and by and by, when happier days come, we shall 
meet again, for yon will visit onr England, or we shall return to 
your France.” 

Kaoul submitted with bad grace, and together the entire party 
made their way down the hill, past the chateau where Isabel had 
been held prisoner, to the Castle of Misfortune, which Raoul was 
to transform into a Castle of Benevolence. 

And in the morning Isabel, with Alain at her rein, and Roger 
conducting Dame Winifred^s palfrey, and Jean riding sadly be- 
cause it was so short a time before they should part, quitted the 
Castel Malheureux, and rode away on their course toward Amiens. 

Arrived at that city, Alain decided to halt there over night to 
discover, if it were possible, what had been Hugo’s fate. He had 
a faint hope that the stout old soldier had been found and nursed 
back to life by some kindly hands; at least, if he were dead, he 
would try to discover his grave, and mark it with a cross, for his 
had been a fidelity such as is too rare in a selfish world. Acting 
first on the brighter hope that he might be found alive, Alain 
went out after his cousin had been safely bestowed in the lodgings 
he had found for her, and wended his steps toward a Franciscan 
monastery, where the brethren were renowned for their skill in' 
healing, and their goodness in practising their art; had Hugo 
been found alive, Alain reasoned, it was here that he would have 
been carried for nursing. 

The friar who admitted him listened to his story, and when it 
had ended he smiled, and said : Then the poor man is not raving. 
Yes, such a one as you describe was brought to us for healing, 
found on the road to Castel Malheureux, as you say. Our Brothers 
nursed him through his fever, but now he raves of the young lady 


170 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


who was carried off by villains, and begs to be allowed to go 
single-handed to her rescue. We have thought that the blow he 
had received on his head had deranged him, and have kept him 
close. Apparently the poor fellow is sane after all.” 

And you did not investigate his story ? ” asked Alain, won- 
dering. The young lady was in sore straits, and the tale quite 
true. By your leave I will take Hugo with me to England; the 
sight of Lady Isabel safe and well, and on her way back to her 
home, will do more to reestablish him than any herbs.” 

When Alain returned to his cousin, Hugo, tall and grim-look- 
ing, with his head shaved, and his face hollow from suffering, was 
with him, and the cry of joy Isabel uttered as she saw her true 
friend once more made Alain feel that if he had endured a thou- 
sand times more than the trials which his journey in quest of 
her had cost him, that moment was worth it all. Jean rode with 
them all the way to Calais. When he had seen Isabel, Dame Wini- 
fred, Boger, and Hugo on board the ship that was to carry them 
across the channel, and had not only wrung Alain’s hand, English 
fashion, but kissed him repeatedly in his own way, he rode sadly 
back to Arras and the wood-carver’s family, feeling the sunshine 
had gone from his sky. Hor did many years pass before he fol- 
lowed these friends into England, and Isabel’s children found his 
love waiting them when they came to lighten Barrington. 

How bright, how beautiful looked the white cliffs as these wan- 
derers drew near the English shore ! Isabel wondered at herself, 
for, though her two dear ones were not at Barrington to welcome 
her, but slept beneath that green English turf, her heart leaped 
joyously, and she felt that she was coming home. 

All the village sleeping at the foot of the castle went forth to 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


171 


welcome their dear young lady after all her sorrows, and not less 
heartily to welcome the loyal youth who had restored her to them, 
and her own to her. 

A gorgeous cavalcade, all gay with trumpets, banners, glad 
shouts, and happy faces, accompanied the procession that wound up 
the hill to Barrington Castle, bringing Isabel home. And at the 
summit, standing in the broad doorway, was Lady Margaret, lean- 
ing trembling on Lord Guy’s arm, for not only was she rejoiced 
that Isabel was safe, but Alain, her last, dearest child, had come 
back unscathed from the field of Agincourt, from the dangers of 
travel, and had they not heard from the king himself that he owed 
his life to this youngest son of Barrington ? 

But Lady Margaret did not forget where her first duty lay. 
While Guy held his brother fast in a speechless clasp of welcome, 
the mother folded to her warm heart the lonely girl, and kissed 
her as her own mother might have done. Welcome home, my 
dear, my only daughter,” she whispered. Love us a little, for we 
will love you so much.” 

^^^^ot a little; a great deal, with all my heart,” whispered 
Isabel back, feeling that for the first time in her conscious life 
she had a mother. 

Lord Guy looked at the unknown cousin, and as he looked 
something leaped into his eyes, and Isabel’s drooped beneath them. 
He had been prepared to find her beautiful, sweet, too, for this he 
had heard of her always, but not what she was, not possessing a 
charm which he had felt in no other woman. 

Lady Margaret saw the look, and glanced fearfully at Alain. 
He, too, had seen it, but he returned his mother’s glance with a look 
so bright, clear and significant that it set her heart at rest. If 


172 


IN THE DAYS OF KING HAL. 


Alaiu had not learned to love her with a love stronger than a 
brother's, in these long hours passed at her side, what could be so 
blessed as that Guy should make Isabel his wife ? 

The dream was fulfilled. When the hawthorn, that had been 
white when the herald rode to Darrington announcing its misfor- 
tune, bloomed again, Isabel, clad in garments as snowy as the haw- 
thorn’s own, spoke the vows in the old chapel which made her Lady 
Darrington. And when they had been uttered Alain departed to 
join the gallant king he loved, to win with him new glory on the 
field. 

It is said that some time later Alain rode to Carnaymond, and 
brought back Sir Eobert Aymond’s beautiful sister to be a sister to 
Isabel also, but that is outside the limit of this chronicle. Certain 
it is that though Dame Winifred and Hugo adored Alain as the 
rescuer of their dear lady, Alain’s children were not so idolized by 
them as the young heir of Darrington, or Isabel’s sweet little 
daughter. But to Lady Margaret Alain was ever a little nearer 
and dearer than all other earthly objects, and as to the children, 
like a true grandmother, she spoiled them all. 

Darrington Castle smiles under its ivies, and grows sunnier as 
the years go by, for in its shade play the pledges of its future, and 
within its walls perfect happiness reigns. 


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